grief Archives - E.B. Bartels

“To the Iditarod Man” on Off Assignment!

E.B. Bartels — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 22:00:50 +0000

I am thrilled to share I have a new essay published in Off Assignment as part of their Letter to a Stranger series. Read “To the Iditarod Man” here, and also check out my “Behind the Essay” interview for the Off Assignment newsletter as well! Thank you so much to editors Colleen Kinder and Aube Rey Lescure for giving this essay a home.

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Non-Fiction by Non-Men: Kristin Keane

E.B. Bartels — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 21:45:20 +0000

For the full interview, see it on Fiction Advocate.
Published on April 13, 2022.

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Kristin Keane is the author of the memoir An Encyclopedia of Bending Time and the novella Luminaries. Her writing and research have or will appear in/at the Washington Post, New England Review, TriQuarterly, Electric Literature, and elsewhere.

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Just Being in Litro Magazine!

E.B. Bartels — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 19:32:06 +0000

It’s spring again, and I’m still here, still sitting, still inside. At my desk, I gaze out the window at sparks of green, glimmers of yellow and purple, as daffodils, crocuses, new grass make their way into the warming world. Spring makes me want to get out and move – to go for long walks, to travel to new places, to see old friends, to roll around in a meadow. But instead, I’m sitting still, because I know that is what I need to do to help myself and help others. Being still sometimes feels like giving up. Being still feels like acting helpless. Being still doesn’t feel like enough. I usually think of helping as an active gesture; the words “action” and “active” have the same root, the Latin verb for “do.” But sometimes, I’ve learned, you can take action by doing nothing. Sometimes you can help by simply being still.

I started writing this essay three years ago. it has gone through many iterations and it took me a long time to figure out what it really was all about, but finally now it is now up on Litro Magazine and I am so happy to have it out in the world. Click here to read it.

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June 14th, 2011 on Past Ten Magazine!

E.B. Bartels — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 22:26:36 +0000

Past Ten publishes stories by artists and writers who reflect on where they were ten years ago. This spring, I wrote about June 14th, 2011 — the last day I saw my Auntie Christine before she died. Click here to read. the short essay.

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Interview with Vince Granata on Full Stop!

E.B. Bartels — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 15:58:27 +0000

For the full interview, see it on Full Stop.
Published on June 9, 2021.

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I first learned about Vince Granata’s memoir Everything Is Fine through my friend who is friends with one of Vince’s friends, and when I hopped on the phone with Vince, we naturally figured out we had yet another friend in common. Even though Vince now lives in Texas, he spent his 20s in the Boston area, where I have lived most of my life. Everyone knows everyone through someone else in Massachusetts it seems. It’s a small world.

It’s a small enough world that even before I read Vince’s searing memoir about the murder of his mother at the hands of his schizophrenic brother, I remembered hearing about the news story. I’ve long been someone interested in reading about the darker aspects of life, and Vince’s memoir might just be one of the darkest books I have ever read. There is nothing easy or light about reading Vince’s family’s story. And yet, while Vince’s book does not shy away from some of the hardest – the hardest? – things a family can grapple with, his memoir is one of the most empathetic, kind, and human works I have ever read. There is also a history of schizophrenia in my own family, and Vince’s book provided the nuanced and thoughtful approach to a devastating mental illness that is absent in so many pop culture narratives. I was thrilled to get the chance to speak with Vince and ask him about what it took to write this remarkable work.

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