Dear Sugar,

Please oh please help me. I’m so mixed up and in so much pain that I’m beginning to be afraid I might kill myself, though I have two small children and basically know I can’t and would never, and I definitely know how crazy and self-dramatizing that is. The very fact that I think of killing myself when I am a mother is scaring the shit out of me. …more

Dear Sugar,

Three of my best college buddies and I go away for an annual guys weekend at a cabin in the woods. …more

Dear Sugar,

I just heard that you plan to reveal your identity at a party The Rumpus is having for you on Valentine’s Day. I don’t know how I feel about that! …more

I’m answering two letters at once this week, sweet peas. …more

Dear Sugar,

I’m 29 and dating a man that I adore; we’re planning to move in together soon. I have a stable job that I hate, but I hope that I’ll one day find something I enjoy. I have family and friends and hobbies and interests and love. So much love. And I’m desperately afraid that I’m going to have cancer. …more

Dear Sugar,

My question is not about love or sex, but rather one of identity …more

Dear Readers,

Last week I asked you to write to me about what you’re grateful for. The response was overwhelming. …more

Dear sweet peas,

As long-time readers of this column know, it’s my tradition that every time I reach a “new decade” of columns I write shorter answers to several questions instead of the usual longer, single question column. …more

Dear Sugar,

Ever since I was small girl of about six, I have delighted in the idea of growth. And I don’t mean spiritual or emotional or mental growth. I mean literal growth. The idea of expansion has always excited me. …more

Dear Sugar,

I’m writing this from my little couch/bed in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Egelston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta. …more

Dear Sugar,

I’m 26 years old and finally in a relationship I cherish and feel proud of. I want so much for it to thrive. …more

Dear Sugar,

I’m a woman in my mid-50s. I read your column regularly and believe that my question is pedestrian but am humbly asking for your advice and support anyway as I sit in the pain of it all. …more

Dear Readers,

This week I’m answering two letters together. Each letter is from one of the women involved in the situation detailed in the letters. I wouldn’t have known the two letters were connected but for the (unpublished) postscript one of the letter writers added, informing me that she knew the other woman involved had written to me as well. …more

Dearest Sweet Peas,

One month ago I received an email from a woman named Colleen Wainwright. She wasn’t asking me for advice. …more

Dear Sugar,

I’ve been dating a man — whom I’ll call William — for nearly three years. …more

Dear Sugar,

Do you think there will ever be room for me …more

Dear Sugar,

I’m 29 year-old woman who is engaged to be married to a man I’ve been with for about two years (we’ve lived together for one). I’m very close to my sister. …more

Dearest Sweet Peas,

Long-time readers of my column know that it’s my tradition that every time I reach a “new decade” of columns I do a Q&A, in which I write shorter answers to several questions instead of the usual longer, single question column. …more

Dear sweet peas,

I’m taking some time off, so I don’t have a new column for you, but I’m still sending a weekly message out to the members of my Google group. I sent out this one earlier today and Stephen Elliott suggested we publish it on the site. …more

Dear Sugar,

I’m seeing a woman I love and I believe she loves me, but she’s very insecure. This manifests in several ways, …more

Dear Sugar,

1. It’s taken me many weeks to compose this letter and even still, I can’t do it right. …more

This week Sugar is offering her advice in a response to five letters. …more

Dear Sugar,

I need your help with forgiveness. I am carrying a fierce anger in my body every day, and I can’t seem to find my way out of it. …more

Dear Sugar,

My brain is unquiet today. I had a sex dream about my wife this morning and woke feeling terrible. I realized that at some point in my life, I became a man who feels terrible fantasizing about his wife. I have never had sex with my wife, almost three years now. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. …more

Dear Sugar,

I am a mother of two beautiful little girls, ages 4 and 2. …more

In this very special Rumpus interview, Lidia Yuknavitch interviews our beloved Sugar: …more

A letter from Sugar:

Dearest sweet peas whose letters have been published in my columns,

I need your help. As many of you have suggested, I’m pursuing the possibility of publishing a book of my columns. In the course of this, I realized that I needed to make explicit what has been implicit all along: …more

Dearest Sugar, Light of My Thursday Afternoons:

I teach a few creative writing courses at the University of Alabama where the majority of my students are seniors graduating in May. …more

Dear Sugar,

For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to “just know,” how is a person to decide if he or she wants to have a child? …more

Dearest sweet peas: It’s become my tradition that every time I reach a new decade of columns I do a Q&A, in which I whip out shorter answers to several questions instead of the usual longer, single question column. …more