Hey memoirists, CNF writers, essayists, all y’all, especially those who have been doing this for a long time: what are the bad takes, undeveloped stances, naive or young ideas you had in early career publications that you now disavow, take back, totally cringe to think about? What would you scrub from your earlier pubs if you could?

I know I am a TOTALLY different person than I was in 2013 when With or Without You (my first book) came out. I see a lot of things differently. So I’ll go first: the fatphobia that belonged to my dad, not me; the bi-phobia that was a response to the straight men in my MFA who thought they could define everyone else’s sexuality (and criticize it); the immense slack I cut my dad bc I was afraid of losing him if I told the whole truth; the harsh judgement I had for some of my caregivers and other kids bc I was still processing so much shit while writing that book…