Ellen Blum Barish, the fearless leader of our Monday night Personal Essay Writing class, recently let it slip that ‘Modern Love’ is a staple in her New York Times Sunday reading regiment. Stuck in the middle of the Sunday Styles section, ‘Modern Love’ doesn’t jump out as the most scholarly of choices. Every week, The Times devotes roughly 1,000 of its high coveted words to the same topic: How we life and love in the modern world.
I should confess that I am ‘Modern Love’ junkie and was delighted to learn that a Story Studio teacher I like and respect feels the same way I do about the column. Before I dutifully read the Sunday Book Review or recession-ridden front page, I turn always turn to ‘Modern Love.” The topics range from internet dating to long-distance relationships, from lost love to second chances. The tenor is at times light and hilarious (like the one I recently read about a man who forced his grandfather to “de-friend” his ex-girlfriend on Facebook) and other days strikingly heartfelt (like the one a few weeks back about the single mom who decides to let her estranged husband back into her son’s life, after the husband learns he has terminal cancer).
For anyone interested in the art and craft of the personal essay, ‘Modern Love’ is an excellent place to start. Accessible in topic and manageable in length, these wonderful little essays are often prime examples of personal essay at its best. After all, ‘Modern Love’ is an open submission process (See? Anyone can get published in The Times!) so the chosen essays are usually the best of the best of the best. Plus, they are totally economical: given the world-count constraint on these essays, their writers are forced to get to the heart of the matter – and quick.
So if you’ve never perused ‘Modern Love’ on a Sunday morning, I definitely recommend it. And if you don’t trust me – listen to Ellen Blum Barish! She is, after all, employed here.
