Alexandra Dos Santos

Jul 1, 2024 | memoirland.substack.com | Hannah Sward |Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory |Rebecca Giggs |Alexandra Dos Santos

Welcome to Memoir Land—a newsletter edited by , now featuring four verticals:Memoir Monday, a weekly curation of the best personal essays from around the web brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus,  Granta, Guernica, Oldster Magazine, Literary Hub, Orion Magazine, The Walrus, and Electric Literature. Below is this week’s curation. First Person Singular, featuring original personal essays.

Jun 27, 2024 | electricliterature.com | Alexandra Dos Santos

With swollen eyes, I sit before a g​​roup of 18-20 somethings. The air is tense, dead silent. They stare at me expectantly, waiting for the train wreck to begin. I curse myself for not wearing more makeup to cover my humanity. They can see I’m struggling, can’t they? Last night I ugly-cried myself to sleep. My situationship and I broke it off, and my mom is dead. The latter isn’t new, but the former, like most young adult woes, is something I would’ve turned to her for.

Oct 11, 2023 | lithub.com | Alexandra Dos Santos

Contains spoilersHorror, more than any other genre, is not afraid to face death. So many tales of terror begin in death’s wake: in the quiet aftermath of a funeral or on the dark grounds of a cemetery. And while other genres might shy away from the gory details, horror takes the plunge into the existential dread, the trauma. Grief cannot—should not—be sugar coated. So we come to scary movies and books to relate. To feel less alone in perhaps the loneliest experience life has to offer.