We Need Your Help Continue to Publish and Grow!

We're celebrating 3 years of Open Secrets Magazine with a subscriber and fundraising drive

Hello! Open Secrets Editor-in-Chief Rachel Kramer Bussel here. I’m popping in to belatedly celebrate three years of publishing and let you know about some of what’s coming up. It’s hard to believe that this little magazine I hatched up has grown and expanded so much.

We are two days out from Open Secrets Live, our second annual personal storytelling summit in New York City on May 2, with such an amazing lineup, including keynote talks by Jeff Hiller, Murray Hill, and Youngmi Mayer, along with over 30 memoir authors and editors from book publishers and The New York Times and Slate. It’s sold out, but our venue, Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, has a wait list. And you can watch lots of clips and highlights by following us on Instagram. We’re also recording audio from our panels and talks and will be posting those on Open Secrets, speaker permission pending.

Here’s a few photos by Yoko Haraoka and ARIN SANG-URAI/photojuice from last year, where I got to interview the iconic Jane Pratt, founding editor of Sassy, xoJane, and Jane, and now editor of the wonderful Another Jane Pratt Thing, and where we also enjoyed a keynote talk from Minda Honey and Deesha Philyaw, whose new novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is out September 29. I owe you a full recap, but that will have to wait until after this year’s event!

We have expanded from one essay a week to 3-5 essays, often more, and also host our virtual Open Secrets Book Club and Q&As with our contributors.

On May 6, we’re launching the podcast Finders and Keepers, about our attachments to our belongings, expanding on the essays we’ve published in our Stuff-ed and Object-ives sections. Episodes will be available on all major podcast platforms, such as Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and will be posted on Open Secrets. Jane Pratt and Deesha Philyaw are among the first season interviewees, along with authors Edgar Gomez, Rob Hart, Aymann Ismail, Emily Mester, Emma Straub, and many more! Right now you can follow the podcast findersandkeeperspod on Instagram and TikTok. I’m so excited to share these conversations with all of you!

Here’s what else we have coming up, which can always be found on our about page:

May 6, 7 p.m. ET, Q&A with Open Secrets contributor Jenny Bartoy on the complexities of family estrangement, her essay, “So It Goes,” and her anthology No Contact; link to watch and get reminder or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

May 18, 8 pm ET, Q&A with Open Secrets contributor Jazmine Becerra Green, on Invisible Marital Abuse: When “It Wasn’t That Bad” is a Lie, and her essay “How to Shatter a Marriage;” link to watch and get reminder or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

May 28, 8 pm, Open Secrets Book Club video Q&A interview on Better: A Memoir About Wanting to Die by Arianna Rebolini, link to watch and get reminder or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

July 2026, date TBA, Q&A with Amena Brown, author of memoir in essays Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl, link TK or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

July 2026, date TBA, Open Secrets Book Club video Q&A interview on Adulting for Amateurs: Misadventures of a Geriatric Millennial by Jess H. Gutierrez, link TK or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

September 2026, date TBA, Open Secrets Book Club video Q&A interview on Portrait of a Mestiza: A Memoir in Essays by Marianna Marlowe, link TK or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

November 2026, date TBA, Open Secrets Book Club video Q&A interview on War Boys: A Father and Son Memoir by Jason Prokowiew, link TK or visit Open Secrets in Substack app

All of this work takes time and money, and in order to continue to publish as we have been, we need to increase our operating budget. That’s where you come in!

That’s where you come in! You may have noticed that we’ve started putting a Buy Me a Coffee donate button at the end of our posts. If you’re a paid subscriber or have already donated, thank you! If you’re not, I’m asking for your help in the form of a donation of $1 or more to continue doing this work that feels like a calling and brings me so much joy, and provides a space for personal essays that is helping explore important topics like family estrangement and food insecurity.

We are trying to get to 10,000 subscribers and raise $5,000 by the end of May. This will enable us to add more personal essays to our editorial calendar and pay our writers, bring on paid help, and hold more in-person and virtual events. Your support can help get us there!

If all of our 7,800+ subscribers donated $1, that would more than meet our goal.

How else can you help?

Subscribe to Open Secrets Magazine if you haven’t already

Like, comment, and/or share any of our 200+ personal essays

Share our writing guidelines with your followers

Recommend Open Secrets Magazine on Substack

Shop from our Bookshop affiliate storefront

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