My essay “Where We Store Shame” was recently published in Oregon Humanities. This essay represents the first time I have written deeply and personally about my parents, some of the ways we experienced poverty, and how I’ve tried to make sense of it all. It is, perhaps, the best of my writing. Or perhaps I just really needed to write it. You can read the essay here.
-Larina Warnock, Where We Store Shame
Like many first-generation college students, I believed education would alter the future so much it would erase any lingering trace of the past. So while my dad collected experiences and my mom collected stuff, I collected knowledge.
I want to take a moment to thank Ben Waterhouse and Sarah Currin-Moles from Oregon Humanities for their work with this essay. I cannot think of any editor I’ve worked with in the past that not only helped me make the piece better, but also thoroughly protected the spirit of the piece and demonstrated compassion for what the piece meant to me as an author. I also want to thank the illustrator, Madeline Martinez. Her work beautifully complemented the essay. I cried when I saw it. You can find more of her work here.
