The Demulcent of Shame

Emerging Writer Series

Every two weeks or so I am publishing an essay from an emerging writer. This week, we are publishing “The Demulcent of Shame” by Jason Prokowiew. Jason received the 2023 PEN America/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History for War Boys, his braided memoir about his Russian father’s adoption by Nazis during World War II and how his trauma carried into …