Natasha Varner

Feb 12, 2024 | memoirland.substack.com | Abdelrahman ElGendy |Natasha Varner |Camille Dungy |Lynn A. Cunningham

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. Recently I published “War Creates Many Orphans” by and guest edited by . A new essay is coming soon.

Feb 8, 2024 | electricliterature.com | Natasha Varner

I knew where I was going but not how to get there, so I made several wrong turns on my way to the Castle Apartments. When I finally arrived, I got out of the car and had to shield my eyes from the sun. It was cold in the way that only a winter morning in the desert can be: an emptiness where you expect warmth. My presence on that otherwise empty street felt conspicuous. I was searching for a part of Tucson’s past, but to any observer I was just a loiterer casing the building.

May 17, 2023 | atlasobscura.com | April White |Natasha Varner |Ethan Sandweiss |Eveline Chao

The top tier of Shizuo and Frances Nishimura’s wedding cake, which has miraculously survived since they were married in an American concentration camp in 1943.