The Gloria Sirens feel there are stories that need to be amplified. We are seeking submissions of personal essay / memoir narratives between 200 and 300 words about a time you ‘took a risk to speak your truth to power.’
Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. — Oprah Winfrey
Write as if you were dying― Annie Dillard
Your anger and damage and grief are the way to truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not to go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in– then we will be able to speak in our own voice.
― Anne Lamott
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
― Virginia Woolf
I watched as Cheryl went from person to person like a hummingbird gathering nectar, engaging people as though she were truly interested in them– and I’m sure she was. She told me that she asked so many questions of her mother’s friends and house guests when she was young that her mother gave her a limit of how many questions she could ask each person. What were the types of questions she asked? “Who do you love? Why do you love them?” All questions of the interior life. Imagine a five year-old engaging you in such a conversation.
The Gloria Sirens 