Dear Imagined Agent
a dispatch from bewilderness
Dear Imagined Agent,
Your invitation says you welcome first-person stories that offer intimate takes on unusual personal experiences, pursuits and passions. It also says you focus on fresh and underrepresented voices. I have been too fresh at times, but never too represented. “Under” is my niche.
Eighteen years ago, I was hit by a drunk with a truck which caused in me the type of brain damage former representative Gabrielle Giffords suffered when she was shot in the head. That’s why I can’t read well, and don’t remember stuff for longer than 2.3 seconds. That makes me Diverse, Neuro-Diverse, and brain-damaged, too. A trifecta.
I am writing a book called either: Amnesic Memoir, or We Used to Be Me, or Losing My Mind and Getting a New One, or I Feel Like I Was Hit by a Truck. Or something else. In my spare time, I have learned to walk, talk and build homes for birds.
The book is built with salvaged words. The homes are built with salvaged wood. The late Dr. Oliver Sacks and the very alive Dr. Steven Pinker and Dr. Rick Hanson liked excerpts of my work. As you know, they have sold a lot of books. I am honored that one of my favorite writers of all time likes my work, too. Her name is Abigail Thomas.
In my first life, I was freelance writer, ghosting on the side. My life intersected (not in this order) with Big Bird, Martha, Oprah, Elmo, Time, Vogue and Rolling Stone. Plus a few icons I can’t name since that’s what ghosting demands.
I know “brain damaged book by brain damaged writer” is not on your Manuscript Wish List, but hope you can muster one-zillionth of the faith in me that I have in you. If so, please let me send you an excerpt from the book — which will take ten minutes of your time if you like it, and one minute if you don’t.
Thank you.
All my best,
Judith Hannah Weiss
You can also find me at www.judithhannahweiss.com
P.S. I was recently nominated for Best American Essay and for The Pushcart Prize. I also had surgery. These events are not connected. I’ve also been published in a few fine publications since breaking my brain and won a few more awards