The Post-Prelim Dispatch #2: On memoir and solipsism

How Cheryl Strayed and Marguerite Duras use grammar to control intimacy

Much has happened since we last spoke. I flew to San Francisco, I saw a baby in Big Sur, I attended the 2025 AWP conference. I got the flu and my oral had to be postponed for a week! Then I took my oral and I hit a wall. I did not want to read, let alone write.

I’ve been languishing, but not the fun kind. I find myself anxious, restless—incapable of foc…