A Key to the Asylum

October 5, 2026October 5, 2026 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

'My shoes tapped along the long echoey lino corridor as I headed for the psycho-geriatric ward that I’d been assigned to. The featureless passageway was empty, no one to be seen until I reached an external door where a young woman was mopping the entrance way . . .' This essay, set early in my working life when I still wanted to be a social worker, was published in online literary journal Dorothy Parker's Ashes in October 2026. The theme for the issue was failure. Read A Key to the Asylum at https://www.dorothyparkersashes.com/failure/horror-of-horrors.

Not drowning, but waving

May 30, 2026June 9, 2026 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

A personal essay, first published by Headland in issue 16, November 2021 and included in an anthology 'Loving Arrangements: Stories about Modern Living and Loving' published by Rutgers University Press on 9 June 2026. Click on the image to read the essay or see details of the anthology at https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/loving-arrangements/9781978844544

Waiting for baby

May 2, 2026May 3, 2026 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

A personal essay that recounts my hopes and fears as I awaited the birth of my first grandchild. It was published in Wild Willow Magazine's issue on mums. You can read it at https://wildwillowmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/wwm-issue-6.pdf or click on the image to read it here.

Out the front door

November 19, 2025November 19, 2025 ~ beverleystevens ~ 3 Comments

A short personal essay about farewelling my mother, published in Short Reads in November 2025. https://www.short-reads.org/out-the-front-door/

To the dance

October 21, 2025October 29, 2025 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

This piece, published in Sad Girl Diaries recounts how it took me all afternoon to get ready for the fourth form social. You can read it at https://www.sadgirldiaries.com/post/to-the-dance-beverley-stevens

On the same wavelength

April 12, 2025May 2, 2026 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

This essay about working for the BBC World Service in London in the unit that scheduled transmissions to exotic and contested places was published in the literary journal Dorothy Parker's Ashes. You can read it at https://www.dorothyparkersashes.com/work/on-the-same-wavelength

A river runs through my memoir-in-essays

February 8, 2025May 2, 2026 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

This craft essay, published on the Brevity Blog, tracks some of my reading and learning about writing memoir and, in particular, references Dinty Moore's concept of the magnetic river that needs to run through a story. Read it at https://brevity.wordpress.com/2025/01/29/a-river-runs/

Not telling it all

March 9, 2024October 21, 2025 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

In this article published on the Brevity Blog, I explore how much to reveal and publish about family dramas and difficult relationships in the memoir pieces and personal essays I write. Read it at https://brevity.wordpress.com/2024/03/08/not-telling-it-all/

A dreadful girl

September 15, 2023June 30, 2026 ~ beverleystevens ~ 1 Comment

"I didn’t like Katherine Mansfield; she was a dreadful girl", my grandmother told me. This essay, originally published in the Katherine Mansfield Society newsletter in August 2023, explores her attitude, and that of her family, to the woman who would become a highly acclaimed short story writer. Click on the photo to read it.

Been and gone

September 16, 2022October 21, 2025 ~ beverleystevens ~ Leave a comment

Published online in the literary journal Dorothy's Parker's Ashes, this piece was submitted in response to a call for submissions on the theme 'mother'. My mother is seated in the bottom row, first on the left. Read it at http://www.dorothyparkersashes.com/mother/gone