GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. It’s probably my number one memoir writing tip, since writing on deadline, or to a deadline, is one of the single best ways to learn how to write memoir.
How to Use the Memoir Project Calendar
Hover your cursor over a cinnamon-colored date to see what pops up. Use it to start personal essays, radio pieces and op-eds to submit on deadline. How? Look three months out for radio ideas; six to twelve for magazine pieces. Pluck something from the calendar and start now to submit the very best work you can produce.
Here is how to stop using writing prompts and writing exercises, those time-wasting devices leave you merely practicing writing. You want to write with intent, and you want to succeed. So start today and do so.
Write with intent: Pick it, write it, submit it. Read and react. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do. So write on.
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5May, 5 2025Cinco de MayoIt is Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces in 1862. This is a great one for everything from a memoir about someone else’s cultural holidays, some food memoir perhaps, or a piece of memoir placed at celebration for the day. | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11May, 11 2025Mother’s DayIt’s that emotional high holy day called Mother’s Day, and for all of us this means story – lots and lots of story. I have an entire category on my blog devoted to writing from the place of parenthood. Go see. |
12May, 12 2025Hurricanes Finally Get Named for Men, As WellIt was on this day in 1978 that hurricanes also were named for men. Previously named only for women, this seems like justice, however late. What’s in a name? My sister has something to say about that, named as she is, for a racehorse. I told this story on NPR’s All Things Considered. Have a look. | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16May, 16 2025Fiddlehead TimeIt’s Fiddlehead time. Fiddlehead ferns that is, sold and eaten while they are still rolled up. Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. Called a fiddlehead because it resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle, it is It is also called a crozier since it also resembles the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd’s crook. Got some food memoir? I lap it up, and write it down here. | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23May, 23 2025The Father of Taxomony is BornOn this day in 1707 was the birth of Carl Linneaus, the man who created order out of chaos by creating a classification system for naming and identifying plants. I created one of those, though mine divides by people, asking if you are either a burger or a burrito. Check it out. | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27May, 27 2025Rachel Carson’s BirthdayOn this day in 1907 was the birth of Rachel Carson, one of the greatest advocates the earth will ever know. The New Yorker magazine took a chance on her, first publishing her in 1951 and in 1962 serializing Silent Spring, in which she took on the subject of the ravaging effects of pesticides. The book is still regarded as the cornerstone of the new environmentalism. She inspires me, and I might write a piece of memoir about reading that book or what she has meant to me. You? What creative inspiration does she provoke in you? | 28May, 28 2025The Sierra Club is FoundedOn this day in 1892, the Sierra Club was founded, making it America’s oldest environmental organization. Today, the Sierra Club has chapters throughout the United States and Canada that offer opportunities for local involvement, activism and outings. Begun in San Francisco by John Muir, America’s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist, today the Sierra Club has hundreds of thousands of members across the country and is affiliated with the Sierra Club of Canada. Their mission: To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives. Today they are not only the oldest, but also America’s largest, most influential grassroots environmental organization. Inspired by nature, they are 1.3 million of your friends and neighbors, working together to protect our communities and the planet. Check them out at http://www.sierraclub.org/ | 29May, 29 2025Wisconsin Becomes the 30th StateOn this day in 1848, Wisconsin became the thirtieth state admitted to the Union. The “Badger State” was the last state formed in its entirety from the Northwest Territory. Live in Wisconsin? Have you visited and have a story you want to tell? Plan it, write it and send it along to your local public radio station or newspaper. | 30 | 31May, 31 2025The Man Whose Name Went on a Dish is BornOn this day in 1852 was the birth of someone whose name you learned in 8th grade biology but whose life you may know little about. It’s Richard Julius Petri, German physician and bacteriologist, remembered for his name given to the Petri dish. This is a shallow, cylindrical dish made of plastic or glass with a cover, used for tissue cultures and to hold solid media for culturing and sub-culturing bacteria. In his later days he got a little full of himself, and had put on just enough weight so you’d notice it, and took to dressing in the uniform of chief army doctor whenever the opportunity presented itself. This prompted one observer to remark – and take note if you are dressing to impress – that the sash around his protuberant abdomen reminded him of the equator around the globe. |
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