How a Message from a Stranger Helped Me Finish My Memoir

By Buick Audra

Buick Audra by Anna Haas

For the second time in two years, I found myself working to complete a short memoir to accompany an album. Combing through years of texts and emails from people I used to know, I searched for signs of who I’d been in those relationships. The correspondences revealed a more agreeable version of myself who favored exclamation points, but few usable insights.

The album was by my metal band, Friendship Commanders. We called it MASS, a nod to the stat...