Welcome to Must Love Memoir, the Newsletter

Allow me to reintroduce you to the reading series and so much more.

I started Must Love Memoir back in June of 2023 with nothing more than a lineup of MFA friends and mentors, and a huge knot in my stomach. In the basement of Jake’s Dilemma, I assembled my shiny new pink music stand, set up my letter board displaying the featured readers, fiddled with the rows of chairs until they were perfectly aligned, and held my breath. I wasn’t sure anyone other than the readers and my partner, Ryan, would show up.

From the very beginning, I had a clear vision for what I wanted to create—a small corner in the crowded spaces of New York City just for creative nonfiction writers. I knew that the reading series would be work and that dedicating it exclusively to memoir was a risk, but I decided it was worth the gamble. I spent the next year doing my best to lure listeners to the Upper West Side to hear memoirists read their stories.

By some combination of hard work and luck, those listeners appeared each month to fill seats, and amazing writers continuously accepted invitations to join my readings. The series quickly moved passed the summer and into the winter with no sign of slowing down. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but I somehow created something people wanted just as much as I did.

Now I want to see what else it can do.

With the one year anniversary of Must Love Memoir coming up next week, I have been thinking of ways to grow this community beyond just the series. If my creative writing MFA taught me anything, it’s that writers need other writers in their life. It also taught me the importance of deadlines and/or accountability partners and/or trusted people to share your work with.

When I was bartending for years, I struggled a lot with writing because I couldn’t convince myself that I had anything of value to say. I also didn’t know where to begin to look for other writers to connect with. I really agonized over how to create a sustainable space for writing in my life until I was accepted into my master’s program. After two and a half years of workshops within the same creative writing program, I realized that community around writing takes time to build and even more time to learn how to sustain itself.

Each individual workshop I enrolled in did not lead me to a strong and vibrant writing group. Instead, it took over a year to find the writers whose work I admired or feedback I resonated with. Seeing those same handful of people every week for 16 weeks and every semester for 2 and a half years, helped build the amazing relationships I have now. It’s those relationships that keep me excited about writing and all of it’s possibilities.

It is my goal to bring to this newsletter that same kind of environment.

You might be asking, ‘why am I receiving this email?’

It’s because you have made it on to my Must Love Memoir email list one way or another. Either you verbally told me to send them to you, you wrote your email on my mailing list at a reading event, or when this whole thing started I added you because you were/are a part of my CCNY community and I was excited to share this new adventure with you!

I’m going to be honest—I can’t remember how each and every one of you made it on to my list but I am so glad that you did. I do, however, realize not everyone is going to be excited to start receiving regular emails from me (I understand that they can be A LOT and going through to delete a plethora of unwanted emails on a daily basis is rapidly taking minutes off our lives).

I did consider starting over from scratch when I decided to move my monthly email blasts to Substack, but it was too disheartening to think of all of the lost emails of people who asked to be a part of this community. So I made the decision to move the list over and have those who want to unsubscribe do so. No judgment, no questions. I sincerely only want people here who want to be because it’s the only way this community will thrive.

Why should I stick around?

Well not only will it be the best place for detailed information about upcoming reading events, but it will also dig into the nitty gritty of creative nonfiction writing, highlight emerging writers and host a handful of accountability workshops, write-ins and submission opportunities for paid subscribers.

Basically, if you are looking for a corner of the internet that is completely devoted to nonfiction, this is it! It doesn’t matter where you are in your writing journey.

You can expect to receive more emails in the next few weeks that will detail all the exciting things happening here at the Must Love Memoir newsletter and the many ways paid subscribers can get involved and start building their writing community. I hope the introduction posts will get you excited for what’s to come.

In the meantime, you can read more about my vision for this newsletter in the About page. If you haven’t been to many (or any) readings, you can also check out a complete list of past readers on this updated post.

You can also check out THIS Tuesdays lineup and details for the one year anniversary below.

This isn’t for me, how do I unsubscribe?

It’s very easy!

Step 1:

At the bottom of this email you should see a button that says “unsubscribe”. Click that!

Step 2:

A new window will open that will give you the option to “unsubscribe from all”. Once you click that you should be done receiving emails from me.

Again, no hard feelings if this newsletter simply isn’t for you.

Of course I hope that you’ll stick around to see what tricks I’ve got up my sleeve and more importantly, if I can actually pull them all off. And if you must go, I hope you’ll keep following the Instagram account for upcoming information about the reading series.

For those of you who plan to stay, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart (and I don’t care if that sounds cheesy). I am here because I’m completely in love with nonfiction writing and everything it has brought to my life as both a writer and a reader, and I want to share that love with you.

I also just want to add a tiny disclaimer that I am just one person behind all of this (the monthly series and the newsletter). I wear many hats beyond just host and curator—like social media manager, graphic designer, photographer, editor, and probably a list of jobs I don’t even realize I’m doing. I say this because I am bound to make mistakes, so please bear with me as we navigate this new adventure together.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Must Love Memoir can do beyond my monthly reading series and I’m so happy you’re here for it.

In the meantime, keep on loving memoir ♥️