The personal is political — so said the second-wave feminists. In a word, writing the personal for public audience is revolutionary. In other words, writing the personal reveals personal truths that scrape taboo. Detractors of contemporary personal narrativists call the work…

In September 2013, I met singer/songwriter Spencer Krug in Montreal, Quebec, the day he was set to debut songs from Julia With Blue Jeans On, his melodramatic, gut-wrenchingly intimate album of dark love songs performed, starkly, with just his voice and a piano. I had…