I was so honored that my essay, “The Longest Day of the Year,” was a finalist for the 2021 Nowhere travel writing prize. And here, at long last, it is!
My challenge for the essay was to honor the beautiful Latvian holiday of Līgo on summer solstice—and get back inside my head in 1999 when I was a new Peace Corps Volunteer at the age of 22. By ‘my head,’ I mean my crushes, my feelings about saying the word ‘vagina,’ and my hopes for who I might become on the longest day of the year.
While you’re over on the Nowhere site, check out some of the other essays. It’s a gorgeous magazine, with work that takes you places.