Emily Sernaker | The Sun Magazine

Emily Sernaker

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Emily Sernaker is a writer and educator who lives in New York City. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Ms., and McSweeney’s.

— From April 2023
Poetry

Ode To The Man Who Gave Me A Dinosaur Notepad On Our Hinge Date

Because he didn’t think girls don’t like dinosaurs. Because he didn’t assume / he was entitled to have sex with me because he bought me a taco. / Because our date was an hour. Because what he gave me was light / and easy to carry.

April 2023
Poetry

More Of This, Please

In grad school I had a writing teacher who’d completely cream my essays. / Cross-outs and tracked changes. He took me at my word / when I said I wanted to get better.

April 2022
Poetry

The Wedding Gift

From the moment Ashlee asked me to be a bridesmaid, / I understood what my wedding gift needed / to be. It wasn’t the set of tumblers / I shipped her from 14th Street, daffodils and dandelions / climbing the sides. It wasn’t helping her angel of a mother / practice her speech, making pencil marks for pauses / and every deep breath. No, my gift / to Ashlee started when she told me Cate from college / would be a bridesmaid, too.

December 2021
Poetry

Jewish Enough

The morning after my fourth-grade teacher / taught my class about the Holocaust / (how Christians like Mom were safe, Jews / like Dad were sent to camps in cattle cars)

September 2018
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