In this episode you are going to hear a collection of short pieces we are dubbing “Flash Memoir” from our archives. These are little gems we’ve published in Wildfire Journal, read for you by April Stearns. We have nine years of published stories in our archives that are just too good not to share. In the past we used to do a call for submissions for short-form stories with a very specific prompt in mind. We would get back some very impactful bite-size vignettes – not long enough to be a full essay. This collection of dense and sparkling flash memoir pieces comes from our 2017 “Body” issue of Wildfire Journal. The writing prompt was, “What were your surgery experiences?” with pieces written by Vicky Finch, Maegan Molnar, Libby, Riley and Laurie.
Subscribe and Listen On…
More From The Burn
Today’s storyteller reflects on receiving a breast cancer diagnosis at 28 and the lasting emotional imprint of survivorship more than a decade later. Moving between past and present, she explores the survival mindset that carried her through treatment and the gradual return of feeling after years spent simply trying to stay alive.
This conversation explores memory, identity, inner resilience, and the relationship between who we were before cancer and who we become afterward — revealing how pain and love can coexist in the same story.
Today’s storyteller reflects on her relationship with her grandmother against the backdrop of a family deeply marked by cancer. As relatives fall ill and pass away, truths are hidden and grief moves quietly through generations.
This conversation explores memory, cultural silence, substitution and survival, what it means to be mistaken for someone who is gone, and how presence itself can become an act of love. It’s a meditation on mortality — and on what it means to remain.
In this episode, today’s storyteller, Hannah Morales, shares a vivid account of the days surrounding her mastectomy and the moment she first saw her changed body in the mirror. Expecting grief and resentment, she instead discovered pride, relief, and a deeper sense of identity that extended beyond appearance.
This conversation explores body image after cancer, surgical loss, motherhood, scars as story, and what it means to define boldness, beauty, and confidence on your own terms — not society’s.
