Must Love Memoir Reading Series
A New York City Reading series dedicated to telling personal stories.
In May of this year, I graduated with my MFA degree in Creative Writing, unsure of what to do next. I spent the previous few years working on a full-length memoir, receiving regular feedback and constantly surrounded by aspiring writers like myself. It was a shock to walk out of my last graduate school class, knowing I wouldn’t have that community built into my routine anymore, and I began to feel incredibly alone in my journey.
I scrambled for what to do next, searching for ways to hold on to that feeling of camaraderie, and thinking of how I could stay connected to a writing community. I thought about enrolling in workshops or starting an online journal, where I could take part in publishing the types of writing I loved to read and hopefully would get to publish one day.
I knew I didn’t have the money for workshops (I had just been a full-time student for a few years), and they didn’t feel like a permanent fix anyway. I also feared the amount of time and energy it would take to develop an online publication and sift through submissions, worried it would take me too far away from my own writing.
Then I started thinking about hosting a reading series. It felt right to try and create a home in the city for creative nonfiction lovers. To have just one night a month where I could bring together a community of writers and readers to celebrate the genre I love so much…even if I was initially apprehensive to center the series around just memoir. I wasn’t sure there was enough love for the genre to sustain a monthly series and I didn’t know if I had it in me to really sell it.
I will confess when the name Must Love Memoir came to me, it helped solidify my decision to devote my reading series to creative nonfiction, because that’s just a great name. More importantly I felt like my love, respect and appreciation for what memoir writers are willing to put on the page about themselves and their lives was enough to sustain a reading series for awhile.
Must Love Memoir officially launched on June 13, 2023, and on the second Tuesday of every month, a brand-new line up of writers come together to share their personal stories. We gather in the basement of Jake’s Dilemma, a bar on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and after four successful events, I can safely say I’ve found the perfect way to stay connected to a writing community.
To be able to curate and provide this small corner of New York City for memoirists and creative nonfiction lovers is one of my favorite things, and it’s helping me get excited about writing and reading in a whole new way. Whether you’re a long-time lover of memoirs, or you just occasionally dabble in the genre, or you’re still not sure what to think about it, you are welcome at a Must Love Memoir event because despite the name, I don’t actually vet the audience.
Check out the previous readers below and stay tuned for more (updated May 18, 2024).
June 13, 2023: (from left to right) David Groff, Aybike Ahmedi, Ginny Bartolone, Krystal Orwig (host), Erin Keane, Irvin Weathersby
July 11, 2023: (from left to right) Nicole Treska, Brian Truong, Krystal Marie Orwig (host and featured reader), Marisa Cadena, David Van Arsdale
August 8, 2023: (from left to right) Efrén Ordóñez Garza, Monique Laban, Krystal Orwig (host), Jennifer Michael Hecht, Lillian Stone, Jacob Kose
September 12, 2023: (from left to right) Dionne Ford, Krystal Orwig (host), Sasha Vasilyuk, Emi Nietfeld, Elissa Bassist, Elizabeth Owour
October 10, 2023: (from left to right) Minda Honey, Krystal Orwig (host), Felice Cohen, (bottom) Don Shewey
November 14, 2023: (from left to right) Micaela Macagnone, Emily Fox Kaplan, Krystal Orwig (host), Hope Kidd, Emmy Favilla, Sara Sturek
January 9, 2024: (from left to right) Meagan Lacy, Elizabeth Passarella, Jane Madembo, Marsha Jacobson, Molly Cameron, Hope Kidd (guest host)
February 13, 2024: (from left to right): Sophia Mazzella, Terry Tom Brown, Krystal Orwig (host), Rita Puskas, Christie Smythe, Haruka Iwasaki
March 12, 2024: (from left to right) Jane Wong, Michael Dolan, Krystal Orwig (host), Sarah Sturgis, Janelle Greco, Gabriel Noel
April 9, 2024: (from left to right) Sam Rappaport, Nina St. Pierre, Krystal Orwig (host), Tyler Wetherall, Aimee Mackovic, Colin Lubner
May 13, 2024: (from left to right): Nikki Vargas, Shenequa Golding, Krystal Orwig (host), Carly Ann Filbin, Meg Pickarski, Juliana Francis Kelly
