Archive - Open Secrets Magazine

‘War Boys’ Author Jason Prokowiew on Writing a Braided Family Memoir

Jason Prokowiew on how his college project became a published book, adding his personal story to his father’s, the lifelong impact of war, overcoming…

Nov 13 • Open Secrets Magazine and Jason Prokowiew

1:02:29

Object-ives #60: My Mexican Grandmother’s Bluebird

How a tiny glass bird keeps her, and Mexico, alive for me

Nov 13 • Jennifer Silva Redmond

Art as a Second Language

How I embraced a new side of my creativity

Nov 11 • Jim Landwehr

November 2026 Call for Submissions: Personal Essays on Topics You Were Taught to Keep Secret

Send us your most vulnerable, moving essays by January 31, 2027

Nov 10 • Open Secrets Magazine

Getting Blackout Drunk at My 10-Year Reunion Reframed High School for Me

I fell in a ditch and lost my phone, among other humiliations

Nov 9 • Isabel Jones

Object-ives #59: My Japanese American Family Pictures That Survived the War

On sepia images, self-preservation, and resistance

Nov 6 • Tamiko Nimura

Woodworking Connects Me with the Dad I Wanted

I’m making peace with the father I got

Nov 4 • Colleen Wright

I Was 16. He Was 23. I Defended “Us” for Years. Then My Daughter Turned 16

Our relationship was always inappropriate, even though we never had sex, but I couldn’t acknowledge that for years

Nov 2 • Jamie Beth Cohen

October 2026

Object-ives #58: What R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps Series Taught Me About My Queerness

How the colors on the covers of these popular children’s books helped me unlock about my childhood longing

Oct 30 • Brenden O'Donnell

How Disaster Becomes Mundane

When an ordinary evening taking my daughter to dress rehearsal went south, I felt the strangeness of parenting as the climate shifts

Oct 26 • Shawna Williams

Object-ives #57: My Lost Wedding Ring

What I learned from my missing wedding band

Oct 23 • Morgan Baker

Watch All Our Book Club and Author Interviews

Catch up on our video interviews with memoir authors and essayists

Oct 22 • Open Secrets Magazine

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