Announcing our 2026 Showcase Theme:

Memoir Showcase Season Has Officially Begun!

The Memoir Showcase is our annual contest for five-page true stories, and it’s special because there are two ways to get published:

1. The 12th Annual Theatrical Memoir Showcase. Eight to nine winning stories are professionally edited and brought to life on stage by professional actors and directors at our live performance at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 20, 2026. Your words. Their voices. A room full of readers, writers, and memoir lovers watching your story come alive on stage.
2. Volume 10, Shaking the Tree: brazen. short. memoir. An additional twenty stories are selected for editing and publication in the milestone tenth edition of our acclaimed anthology series, due out in early 2029.

One submission. Two opportunities for publication. (And if you’re selected for this year’s Memoir Showcase, your piece will also appear in Shaking the Tree, Volume 10.) Open to new and experienced writers. This could be your year!

This year’s theme: Home.

Important Dates

• Submissions Open: June 18
• Memoir Showcase Bootcamp: Thursdays 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, and 7/2, from 5–6:30 p.m. PT ($129)

NEW! Memoir Showcase Bootcamp

For the first time, Marni and Tracy are hosting a Memoir Showcase Bootcamp: four weeks of craft lessons paired with in-class read and critique. Each week, you’ll learn a set of tools and techniques designed to capture our judges’ attention, then workshop your submission live with Tracy, Marni, and your fellow bootcampers. Come with an idea, leave with a polished five-page piece.

Spots are limited, so claim yours early.

• Memoir Showcase Bootcamp: Thursdays 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, and 7/2, from 5–6:30 p.m. PT ($129)

Congratulations to our nine writers selected to be in the 11th Annual Memoir Showcase, where their five-page true stories will be performed by professional actors on stage on Friday, November 14, at 7 p.m. at the David and Dorothea Garfield Theater in University City! Thank you to everyone who submitted; you made it hard for our judges. (Your stories will also be in No, Really, I’m Fine, Volume Nine of the Memoir Showcase anthology, Shaking the Tree: Brazen. Short.Memoir.)

Congratulations to the following writers who will have their five-page true stories published in 2027 in No, Really, I’m Fine, Volume Nine of the Memoir Showcase anthology, Shaking the Tree: Brazen. Short.Memoir.