Community Corner

Writers to Share 'Moment I Knew' Divorce Stories at Huffington Post Meetup

Event stems from twitter challenge to sum up what went wrong in 140 characters or less.

For those in the throes of divorce, it might feel like it would take hours to explain what went wrong.

But for some, 140 characters is enough.

Divorce veterans across the country discovered this when Huffington Post Divorce Page editor Sara Wilson challenged them to condense the moment they knew it was over into a twitter post.

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The results ranged from poignant to bittersweet to downright funny. (Read more of them here.)

“I was having surgery and had to beg my husband to come visit me in the hospital,” was one.

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“When his mistress called the last # my husband called from his cell & asked me who the @#$% I was !” was another.

A third: “When we spent our honeymoon clean out his cousin’s silage tanks on a Kintyre farm.”

“It really forces people to focus,” Wilson said. “You get these little sliver snapshots of people’s real lives. … I didn’t anticipate that people would reveal so much.”

Thinking it might be nice to bring some fellow divorce veterans together, Wilson created Moment I Knew Meetup events across the country, which will take place tomorrow night.

“People want to find like-minded people who have gone through it,” Wilson said. “So we thought what’s the way of doing this that isn’t going to be sad.”

Wilson invited readers across the country to set up meet-ups of their own, and in New York and LA she set up the events, featuring a line-up of writers and comedians who would very briefly share their “moment I knew” stories.

She said she hopes the event will show people “that there is this big community out there and people can tap into it in different ways.”

“It can be helpful (for people) to know they’re not alone,” she said.

The New York event is full, but those interested can be added to a waitlist by e-mailing divorce@huffingtonpost.com. Wilson said she expects to be able to take at least some people off the waitlist.

 

The New York speakers are:

Jill Brooke, writer for FirstWivesWorld.com, divorce coach, and author of the upcoming book, Recipes to Heal When Your Ex Makes You Sick

Joel Dovev, comedian (joeldovev.com)

Ruth Andrew Ellenson, bestselling author of the National Jewish Book Award winning The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt

Isabel Gillies, bestselling author of Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story and A Year and Six Seconds: A Love Story, and actress (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Metropolitan)

Joe Gressis, three-time Emmy nominated editor, writer and film producer

Stacy Morrison, author of Falling Apart In One Piece: One Optimist's Journey Through The Hell Of Divorce and former editor-in-chief of Redbook magazine

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, author of National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Hiroshima in the Morning

Brooke Van Poppelen, comedian seen on TLC's American Chopper and vh1, writer for Dumb as a Blog on truTV, Emerging Comic and two-time Best Female Stand-Up nominee for NYC's Excellence in Comedy Awards

Kamy Wicoff, founder of SheWrites.com and bestselling author of I Do But I Don't: Why The Way We Marry Matters

Kelly Simmon, a reader who won the SheWrites.com 'Moment I Knew Meetup' contest. She a former journalist and advertising creative director who recently published her second novel, The Bird House.


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