Open Secrets Magazine

Open Secrets is a lit mag and community for memorable, revealing personal essays about all the subjects we're taught to keep “secret.”

Author of The Loneliness Files and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Nonfiction Editor at Split/Lip Press. Music Lover. Philly via Ohio.

Writer. Lifter of heavy shit. Always on the lookout for adventure, usually in the mountains. But not necessarily in that order.

Writing about beauty, power, belonging, and care in unstable systems to share what I've learned and help you feel less alone.

Poet. Storyteller. Activist. Professor. Host of the Spiritual Grit podcast. Author of Divorce Papers: A Slow Burn. Single Pinay mom to 3 almost-adult daughters musing on midlife, parenting, academia, social justice, and sometimes K-pop.

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Traveler, creative nonfiction writer, typewriter poet, and creative workshop leader. A few years ago, I quit my job, sold all my belongings, and backpacked around the world. Now I'm writing about it.

My memoir Nine Grudges: The Spiteful Origins of the Happiest Dyke on Earth won the 2023 Quill Prose Award from Red Hen Press, to be published in September 2026.

Emmy Favilla is a New York–based writer and editor. She wants to hear about your pets.

Writing about food, family, books, art, and movies, not necessarily in that order. New book--Make Yourself Useful: remembering a life in kitchen essentials--coming in September 2027!

Writer | Boy mom | Homeschool teacher | Singer | Bookworm | Meditator | Line Dancer. Endlessly fascinated by creativity in life's messiest moments

I am a poet, writer, musician, mother, activist, educator, gardener, baker, and lover of this planet and her beings. Things that sustain me are creativity, community, and being outdoors.

Aging isn’t easy, and society says we shouldn’t. I write about embracing aging through the lens of yoga, and applying your practice to your life.

The Porcelain Heart: A Mother's Memoir of Unexpected Loss, will release in Oct. Her stories have appeared in magazines and collections. including Story of the Week in Narrative Magazine. She won the Producers Guild of America best screenplay award.

Author, writing instructor, podcaster, mom. Represented by Ali Lake of O'Connor Literary and Dana Spector of CAA. MFA from UNO. Host/creator of the podcast THE LONG ROAD TO PUBLISHING. (she/her)

Writer of personal essays & memoir, mom, animal lover, obsessed with sewing clothing and quilts, frequently hiking.

I'm a memoirist who lives in the SF Bay Area. I started writing creatively when I turned fifty and faced (for me) the dreaded empty nest. I love reading about the craft of writing and learning from different sources.

Writer of fiction & essays. Co-owner, Federal Street Books. Candlepin bowler. Language stuff. A lot of crank air. Used to write the dictionary. Western Massachusetts.

Johanna Gohmann has written for The New Yorker's Daily Shouts, McSweeney’s, and The Wall Street Journal. Her humor book All Toddlers Are Scorpios – An Astrological Guide to Your Adorable Tiny Terror was released in April 2026. www.JohannaGohmann.com

Practicing Artist to Practical Nurse

Elizabeth Surlin Gordon writes poetry, essays, middle grade/YA fiction, and holistic wellness articles. Over the pandemic she wrote the children’s book, Where Is Everybody? Her work has appeared in Open Secrets, Wordpeace, and more.

I live in California, where I work as a substitute teacher and spend the rest of my time lost in stories ... sometimes the ones I read, sometimes the ones I write.