Current Issue

This issue presents a collection of nonfiction held together by the first-person singular, that lynchpin pronoun that can be the conduit to some larger idea, or the confidences of an inner life. 

Andrew Hudgins offers a wry diary of the days following his wife’s foot surgery. Meera Subramanian recounts her experience donating a kidney to a friend’s boyfriend, someone who ignored his poor health until it led to crisis. Carlo Rotella’s essay on learning lap steel guitar includes an artful argument on how his struggles as a student of music make him a more empathetic teacher of literature. Bethanne Patrick recounts her life as an army wife stationed in West Berlin in the mid-1980s, and finds subtler lessons in memory than she realized she was taking in at the time. Wilson Sims offers a vivid and bravely structured memoir on his chilling proximity to abuse as a boy. Sarah Khatry’s memoir doubles as a love letter to quantum physics and its influences. 

The portfolios include Orhan Pamuk’s visual diaries, which capture both his talents as a watercolor miniaturist as well as his inner workings on novels and faded aspirations. Photographer Louie Palu contributes a photo essay based on Arctic geopolitics, showing us how Nordic armies are preparing for inevitable Russian aggression. 

The ways in which we capture and suspend memory for others to observe are fundamentally ancient: Show it or tell it. It’s the contours within those modes—of voice or attitude, syntax or structure—that deliver the rich multiplicity that makes autobiographical work so irresistible. And among the contributions we’ve assembled, there are numerous angles of approach we might take to recognize a thing or two about ourselves.