Three Uptown residents are being recognized for writing about their personal stories. Mission Hills residents Anastasia Zadeik and Chili Cilch and North Park resident Kenny Sucher are three of 10 winners of the 2019 San Diego Memoir Showcase.

Sucher wrote a memoir titled “Elephant in the Room,” which recounts a couple’s quarrel in a humorous piece about about the struggles between passion, party, and parentage.

Zadeik was recognized for her piece “Not Fine at All.” In “Not Fine at All,” Zadeik tells the story of a pre-dawn telephone call from her husband’s ex-wife’s brother that reveals a complicated web of lies, forcing her to reassess more than a decade of her past and setting in motion a chain of events that will fundamentally alter her life—and the lives of those she loves most.

Cilch’s winning contribution is named “Paul.”

“For many years, I’ve told my girlfriends that I need to write a book about my crazy dating life.  I’ve often joked that while some people have guardian angels, I seem to have guardian practical jokers.  ‘Paul,’ is a prime example of my prankster guardians running interference with my attempts at romance,” Cilch said. She is currently working on a memoir tentatively titled “Sole Mates – Walking from One Relationship to the Next and Coming Home to Me.”

Executive Producer Marni Freedman, in association with the San Diego Memoir Writers Association (SDMWA), announced the winners of the fifth annual San Diego Memoir Showcase Competition in August.

This year’s contest theme was “I Didn’t See That One Coming,” and almost 200 submissions were received and reviewed by a panel of judges.

Ten winning submissions were selected to be in the fifth annual San Diego Memoir Showcase. The showcase matches writers with local writing coaches and then hires professional actors and directors to bring their stories to life.

These pieces will be performed before a live audience at the North Coast Repertory Theatre on Oct. 28. This year, there will be two shows: a 4:30 p.m. afternoon matinee as well as a 7:30 p.m. evening performance.

In addition to the 10 showcase pieces, an additional 20 writers will be matched with a writing coach and featured in the upcoming 2020 SDMWA memoir anthology, “Shaking the Tree: brazen. short. memoir. – Volume 3.” All the authors will have the opportunity to appear on the “Shaking the Tree” book tour as an anthology author.

The award-winning anthology, “Shaking the Tree — Volume One,” was published in 2018 and featured 29 stories from the first three years of the San Diego Memoir Showcase. Its editors and writers were honored to receive the 2019 National Indie Excellence Award in Anthology.

“Shaking the Tree — Volume 2” will be published in November 2019.