Status Updates From Make It Scream, Make It Burn

"Daughter of a Ghost" by Leslie Jamison

"This is why fairy takes are more forgiving than sentimental novels. They let darkness into the frame. Finding darkness in another story is so much less lonely than fearing the darkness is yours alone."

Representation matters in more ways than one; it pushes back against the internal "imposter" story we tell ourselves.

"The Long Trick" by Leslie Jamison

This is a story of longing, yearning for memories and futures and places that aren't your own and may never be. It's about how wondering, 'what if?' can pull you away from your own presence and the people who love you. It's being thankful for those who show you how to rest your weary searching feet, to choose to remain when you feel compelled to run.

"Maximum Exposure" by Leslie Jamison

What's beyond the edges of a photograph, a map, a painting? What happened before or after the story inside the book or the snapping of the photo? Where do I come from? What will my children's children's children be like? If you've ever felt compelled to understand the entire picture, flaws and all, this essay will resonate with you.

"Up in Jaffna" & "No Tongue Can Tell" each feature a civil war-- our very own Civil War and the more recent one in Sri Lanka. Each one examines our warring desires to both witness and ignore the tragedies and traumas of war...to never forget and to sweep away the rubble to build hotels and encourage industry...to feel empathy and to disassociate.

"Sim Life" by Leslie Jamison

This essay traverses the complex human desire to both inhabit life and leave it, to experience life in all of its trials and to live a life with different challenges, to simultaneously escape life and to live it more fully than our circumstances allow. I realize that I have lived many 'second lives' in the pages of books or through the eyes of others in an endless scroll.

"Layover Story" by Leslie Jamison

Other people's lives "hold more than [we] could ever possibly see," so keep showing up for each other "with grace."

"We Tell Ourselves Stories in order To Live Again" by Leslie Jamison

Many voracious readers argue that stories offer travels to places, periods, and perspectives we haven't and may never experience in our lives. Here, Jamison assets the same about other stories we tell ourselves--the real or imagined or misremembered narratives that build our identity. In essence, we are ourselves, and we are all interconnected.

"52 Blue"
Nature is itself and separate from us, but what we feel for nature and because of nature... that's real, too. I enjoyed exploring this idea with Leslie Jamison, pondering what I've projected onto nature as a balm for whatever's going on inside me at the time and how my projection blocks potential truths. I also love what she says about metaphor and how it provides companionship, resonance, and kinship.