The July lineup is coming in hot!
Let's gather again this Tuesday, July 8 at 7:30pm for a night of nonfiction.
Hello dear memoir lovers,
We are heading into our THIRD year of Must Love Memoir and can hardly believe it. Who would have thought this little series would still be running strong after all this time? Not us.
It is also a little unbelievable how many incredible responses that we received from this last round of submissions. When we decided to open it up to everyone, we had no idea just how many of you would be interested in sharing your work.
While there was only a limited amount of spaces we could fill and so we regrettably couldn’t accept everyone, we are so honored to have read all your work. We hope to open up for submissions again for next year and encourage anyone who didn’t get a spot this time around to submit again.
Now we are fully booked for the rest of the year and we can honestly say having a full calendar that far in advance has never happened before. We are super excited to share each and every writer with you, but for now, we’ll leave you with our full lineup below. This Tuesday is going to be another good one so come out and cool down with some cold drinks paired with some super hot readings!
See you all July 8 at 7:30pm at Jake’s Dilemma.
♥️ ,
Krystal and Hope
July Readers
Holly Mitchell is a queer writer from Kentucky who now lives in New York. Holly's debut book of poetry, Mare's Nest, was published by Sarabande Books in 2023. Previously, Holly received an MFA in Poetry from New York University and honors from the Academy of American Poets, Poets & Writers, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Holly’s poems have appeared in several journals, including Hood of Bone, Volume Poetry, and Narrative.
Samantha Mann is the author of Dyke Delusions and Putting Out: Essays on Otherness and the editor of I Feel Love: Notes on Queer Joy. Her essays appear in The Cut, Vogue, Elle, Today Show, HuffPost Personal and others.
Joseph Lezza is a Pushcart and 3x Best of the Net-nominated writer on the east coast. His debut memoir in essays, I’m Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss (Vine Leaves Press), was a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award and the 2021 Prize Americana in Prose and was named by Buzzfeed LGBTQ+, them, StyleCaster, abc7 San Francisco, and Lambda Literary as a “Most Anticipated/Best Book of 2023.” His work has been featured in, among others, Longreads, Identity Theory, Variant Literature, and Santa Fe Writers Project. You can find him on the socials @lezzdoothis or on Bluesky @josephlezza.com.
Susan Thorson is mom to four adult kids, partner to a mostly amazing guy, and a writer of an in-progress novel, a growing collection of nonfiction and sundries for a nonprofit that employs her. She recently graduated with her MFA in creative writing from the City College of New York, where she was a senior editor for the student news journal, Harlem View, and the English department’s literary journal, Promethean. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two adult kids, and five quirky and mostly loveable rescue cats.
Carissa Chesanek is a writer in Brooklyn with an MFA from The New School. Her work has been seen in the Brooklyn Rail, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, LA Review of Books, and Litro Magazine, where her creative nonfiction essay, “White Deer,” won the Art of Reflection competition. She was a 2021 editorial fellow at Guernica and a member of PEN America’s prison writing committee. She is now a writing mentor at Sloan Kettering’s Visible Ink program and co-host of the Sunday Salon reading series in New York City.
Marisa Cadena’s words appear in Khôra, New World Writing, Eclectica, Elizabeth Ellen’ s Hobart, and Babes of the Abyss, a book on the artwork of A.J. Springer. She is currently seeking representation for her memoir about her experience as a light-skinned Mexican American moving alone to Mexico at 19. Her cocktail recipes are featured in New York Magazine, Health Magazine, and a few books and websites. Cadena produces The Palace Reading Series in Brooklyn and People at the Core podcast, featuring intimate conversations with people from all walks of life who call NYC home.
