The How I Learned Series was a live reading/storytelling/comedy show created by Blaise Allysen Kearsley in 2009. The monthly series ran for a little over a decade with events in the Lower East Side, Brooklyn, and New Orleans, and included benefits for Emily's List and Housing Works.

Featured guests included Mira Jacob, Alexander Chee, Ayo Edebiri, John Fugelsang, Anna Sale, James Hannaham, Hugh Ryan, Sasheer Zamata, John Wray, David Carr, Starlee Kine, Taylor Negron, Issac Fitzgerald, Aparna Nancherla, Emily Flake, Dodai Stewart, Choire Sicha, Jami Attenberg, Maggie Estep, Rosie Schaap, and many others.

How I Learned has been "on hiatus" since the Covid shutdown. Now, it's being resurrected as an online magazine. This aftertimes iteration is not public yet so don’t even bother to Ask Jeeves about it.

In the nightlife spirit of the eclectic series, we are seeking sharp personal nonfiction stories from diverse perspectives, sensibilities, and voices that offer an evocotive spin on existential-leaning themes . The horror and the hilarity of living. The profound and the preposterous. The details that conflict with the old narrative, the little things that challenge a longheld belief. How something is changed, how we get shook; ways of seeing and moving in the world. Heavy stories, humor, stories, what lives in between — whatever the tone or the mood, your How I Learned story does not resolve neatly with a bow. Make meaning out of chaos, but leave us wondering where the story takes you after it ends.

Nonfiction essay: 1500 - 2500 words

Flash nonfiction: up to 800 words

Email subject heading: Submission - How I Learned.

Add a brief synopsis of your piece.`

Attach your submission as a Word or Google doc.

Send to: howilearned@gmail.com

Soft deadline: June 16th

Hard deadline: June 20th

For a less general sense of the vibe, here's a sampling of topics from live shows. You DO NOT have to write to any of these themes, though you're more than welcome to!

How I Learned To Fight Back; How I Learned My Adolescence Was Over; How I Learned What Life is Like; How I Learned About Sex; How I Learned To Lie, Cheat or Steal; How I Learned To Live in New York; How I Learned The Hard Way; How I Learned It's All My Parents Fault; How I Learned It's Not Me, It's You; How I Learned To Say I'm Sorry; How I Learned Nothing is Even Real; How I Learned To Believe; How I Learned There Might Be Some Issues: Stories About Therapy...