Jaouad describes how she grew up spending summers in Tunisia in the rustic house that her father and uncle built together. The only things to do were household chores, read old paperback classics, and write. Jaouad  did the latter extensively, and she still returns to these journals filled with details of her summers spent in Tunisia, which now serve as a “repository of memory” (35).

Jaouad reflects on the fallible nature of memory that coexists with its flexibility and creativity. She also notes how avoiding painful memories doesn’t provide an escape from them; rather, confronting them loosens their grip. She believes that parsing through memories allows one to see a “throughline” from one’s past to the present, helping one recognize and make sense of patterns that arise. She invites the reader to engage with the 10 essays and prompts that follow, which will ask one to revisit both good and challenging memories.

“Mind Map” by Carmen Radley



Carmen Radley recollects reading about how author Philip Roth used to think about a year from his life and try and remember all the things happening in his life and the world around him within that year. When Radley tried the exercise for herself, thinking of the year she was 20, a mind map emerged that started with her at university and eventually went on to encompass world events as well. Calling the experience “strange and wonderful: spatial rather than linear” (40), she invites the reader to choose a year, place, person, or word, and attempt the same mind map exercise.

“I Have Been Eating Figs” by Annie Campbell

Annie Campbell reflects on how her love for figs comes from a childhood memory of eating the fruit along with her family at a “weekend house” in Jericho, plucking the figs from the trees that grew around a spring-fed pool. She asks the reader to write about a food that similarly transports one back in time.

“My Teacher, Mrs. R—” by Arden Brown

Arden Brown offers a collection of sentences about their fourth-grade teacher. The prompt asks the reader to similarly write about a teacher as one saw them as a child, then write about them as the person one is in the present day.

“Shortening the Night” by Hédi Jaouad

Hédi Jaouad recollects his childhood in the town of Gabès in southern Tunisia, when the neighborhood would be enveloped in darkness at night without access to electricity—Jaouad’s house being the exception. Before the arrival of radio and television, the only way to pass the time in the frightening night for the children was to engage in storytelling. Jaouad describes how his elderly aunts would come over and tell stories to “shorten the night” (46) at his mother’s or one of his sibling’s behests. Remembering how their imaginations would come alive when listening to tales of fantasy and folklore, Jaouad invites the reader to reflect on, and write about, the role of superstition in their own childhoods.

“Encapsulating Ephemera” by Jenny Boully

Reflecting on the ephemeral nature of memory, Jenny Boully offers the reader a list of words and invites them to write down a memory or association brought about by any five of them, collecting these memory fragments into a collage essay with a title.

“Collecting Places” by Stephanie Danler

Stephanie Danler recalls how, when writing her memoir, she would write down the name of a place on an index card, filling the back with all the details it brought up for her. In reflecting deeper on why these details were associated with the particular place in her memory, she ended up writing an entire book. Danler invites the reader to do the same with any place, either from memory, or a fictional one if the reader is working on fiction.

“POV: My Hat” by Kiese Laymon

Kiese Laymon narrates an embarrassing incident in which he had to clumsily chase after a hat that was blown off his head in the streets of New Orleans. It became easier to talk about the incident out loud when he considered it from the hat’s point of view. Laymon invites the reader to narrate a funny incident that happened to them from the point of view of an inanimate object that “witnessed” the scene.

“From My Bed” by Tamzin Merivale

From her hospital bed, Tamzin Merivale recounts all the different beds she has slept in throughout her life and the feelings and memories they bring up for her. In her prompt, she invites the reader to do the same.

“Ghost Bread” by Angelique Stevens

Angelique Stevens remembers the time her father taught her and her sister how to make ghost bread, reflecting on how the symbolism of the memory for her is to do with the loss of her father and the loss of her culture. She invites the reader to describe a first from their own life, reflecting on all the deeper meanings it holds.

“Past the Break” by Nathan Lowdermilk

Nathan Lowdermilk describes how, when he is past the break and waiting for the perfect wave, he is in his safe zone. He asks the reader to imagine they are in that place, out on the ocean and surrounded by the wind and the waves, and bring to mind their best memories before writing about them.