The Summer Memoir Contest by the New Literary Society
💚🤍🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍Dear Esteemed Writer, you’ve been tagged to join the Summer Memoir Writing Contest hosted by the New Literary Society! The best will be featured in an anthology and possibly translated. You can participate as a writer or support us from the sidelines — either way, we’d love to have you involved. The first writer to respond will get a special feature in our publication and an exclusive literary interview shared on Medium and WordPress. For all the details, keep reading, and don’t forget to follow our publication. If you’d rather not be tagged in future posts, just leave a comment to let us know. Thanks so much!🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍💚🤍🍀🤍
Before Sharing the Contest Details: A Glimpse Into My Summer — Moments That Stay
When Sal Gallaher, our co-editor, and I first came up with our summer memoir contest, we thought it would be the ideal way to spend the season.
We pictured ourselves surrounded by stories from across the globe while relaxing by the pool enjoying family moments and shaking off the lingering effects of the recent pandemic.
Going through these personal accounts would give us a sense of gentle healing, and allow us to bond with others’ treasured recollections while thinking about our own experiences.
Sal planned to visit her home country Denmark.
And… I expected to travel in my mind through your narratives absorbing the excitement of adventure and the comfort of distant places.
At the same time, I had to remain near my house tied to a renovation project that required my attention.
We believed it would be a simple trade-off.
But life, as it often does, had different ideas in store.
This summer, I said goodbye to three literary mentors and close friends.
In August, my dear uncle died.
Sorrow caught me off guard — by the pool under a harsh sun gazing at the sky, feeling tiny and adrift wishing for more room more time.
And always, Julian’s final message stays with me: “I’m working on ‘I Believe in Angels.’ I kiss you…”
His words remain, like a soft murmur on a peaceful afternoon.
I can’t say it was a nice summer; it wasn’t.
But it was genuine, unfiltered, and packed with experiences that changed me.
At my uncle’s 40-day memorial, one of my aunts looked at me with soft eyes.
She spoke asking me to walk with her in a peaceful alley.
She used an old cane to help her walk.
Despite her age, her face looked pretty and graceful.
I said yes, of course.
I followed her to a beautiful but simple monument near the church.
I thought she might give me a cake or an old photograph, maybe something to remember my grandmother.
But when we got there, I saw the grave wasn’t my grandmother’s.
It belonged to a male descendant from a noble family who had died long ago.
Rather than candy, my aunt gave me a small box — a family treasure passed down through the generations, worn by women I’d never met but who shared my bloodline.
“It goes back to the 1800s,” she said, and I felt a tear roll down my cheek.
We spent the rest of the day at a small Lebanese place talking about old times over light pistachio kataif cake.
My aunt put the bracelet on my wrist giving bits of our family’s history to my cousins and promising me a special painting of our great-great-grandmother — a treasure she’d keep until her final day.
I was on the verge of fainting.
This was way too much…
But… “Silence is golden, but speech is silver.”
How curious it is that death brings us back.
There, within my family, surrounded by laughter and old jokes, I could not help being a child once more — a precious surreal moment where I sensed nothing had managed to flow in the hands of time; rather time had fast-forwarded, played backward and rolled itself up.
We captured the joyous untold moments in those images yet were also aware those stories, not the quietude were the things that would matter in the end.
And now, writing this story with tears moistening the sheet, I understand that this has nothing to do with the absence of someone, but rather with recovering old times and reinventing our family.
I wanted more than a bracelet; I wanted the stories behind it, the hidden truths woven through generations.
So, my aunt and I are setting out to write a book — a wild, beautiful project that has stirred something in my relatives, my friends, and friends of friends.
They all want to be part of this story, to leave something behind.
Because, as it’s often said:
“What remains after us isn’t just silence, but the tales we dare to tell.”
Well… our summer contest was all about memorable moments, and I experienced one of the most unforgettable summers of my life — a season that made me a child again, over and over.
“They say heaven is the place where time turns back”, and this summer, I felt that heaven.
Contest Details
What to Submit
• Memoir, max 750 words
• Theme: The Moment That Changed My Life
How to Submit
- Follow our publication.
- Become a writer for our publication.
- Publish at least 20 stories (only for eligibility for the Popularity prize) using any one of the tags #Fiction, #Memoir, #Nonfiction, #Community, and #Poetry.
- Submit directly to the New Literary Society, using the #Memoir tag. Use the title format: Contest Entry: [Your Title].
- Language: English.
- No fees.
- Submission deadline: October 1st, 2024
- Prizes awarded by: October 15th, 2024
How to Vote
Simply clap! (The number of claps divided by the number of clappers will determine the popularity prize.)
Prizes
• New Literary Society Prize
• Popularity Prize
If You Win, Here’s What Awaits You
• Anthology: Best entries will be compiled into an e-book, showcasing your talent.
• Writing Mentorship: You will receive a mentorship session with a published author via email, benefiting from personalized feedback and guidance.
• Social Media Promotion: You and your work will be promoted on social media channels, increasing your visibility.
• Author Interviews: You will be interviewed, with the interviews published to highlight your achievements and creative process.
• Certificates of Participation and Achievement: You will receive personalized certificates recognizing your accomplishments.
Contest Stories (until now)
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Dear Followers, Writers, and Friends, thank you for reading and engaging! We appreciate your continued support. In the end, your involvement means everything to us. Warm regards.
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Julia Kalman 