“She got up to leave. Beneath her skirt, I saw the quick-twitch smoothness of muscle in her calves and thighs.”
Northeastern Pennsylvania | 2004 | By ALANE LUCAS

“In all of my young years in a town in South Mississippi, I never heard even one person criticize segregation.”
1940s and 1950s | Mississippi | By ALEX NEILL

“My first day on campus, I saw a body being hauled out of the Thurston Avenue gorge, the very place Karl and I stood.”
2000 to 2003 | Ithaca, New York | By SILVI ALCIVAR

“At the same age that I began to exoticize Brazil, Rosie began to be commodified by its flaws.”
February through June, 2005 | Brazil | By LEIGHNA HARRISON

“How long has it been since we felt the connection we once had and hid like it was our bastard?”
2006 | Massachusetts and Maine | By ALEX CUNNINGHAM

“Two and a half hours left until we tie the knot, but the knot in my stomach is the one I’m really worried about.”
August 2006 | San Diego, California | By DAN BROZO

“I suffered with bulimia for more than seven years before finally beginning to recover in the summer of 2006. Last Monday night, I relapsed for the first time in more than six months. I relapsed again today.” | Laura’s room reeked of chocolate, a saccharine reminder of the evil she had just committed. She cleaned up quickly, avoiding reminders.
March 2007 | Durham, New Hampshire | By LAURA LOUISE PLUMMER

That night, in the first really personal conversation they ever had, Shawndra said her father had died of stomach cancer when she was 16. She was an only child and very close with her mother, a nurse. “It’s just me and my mom,” Shawndra said.
1983 | Madison, Wisconsin | By TRACY DINGMANN