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Mandy Len Catron

Originally from Appalachian Virginia, Mandy Len Catron now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Walrus, along with literary journals and anthologies. She writes about love and love stories at The Love Story Project, and she teaches English and creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Her essay collection How to Fall in Love with Anyone was published in 2017.

Rumpus Original

Mandy Len Catron

Feb 10, 2020

Mixed Feelings: How to Make Friends after Thirty

The problem is we tend to let romantic love eclipse all else.
Rumpus Original

Mandy Len Catron

May 7, 2019

Mixed Feelings: A Better Version of Love

You are free to love others as if it were a pleasure and a privilege, because that’s exactly what it is.
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Mandy Len Catron

Feb 14, 2019

Mixed Feelings: A Valentine to Aging Women

Letting go of these ideas about a woman’s value feels like the obvious thing to do, but it’s really hard.
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Mandy Len Catron

Dec 10, 2018

Mixed Feelings: How to Trust after Trauma

I don’t believe the problem of rape culture is beyond resolution, but I know that you’re not the one responsible for solving it.
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Mandy Len Catron

Nov 19, 2018

Mixed Feelings: Two Roads Diverged at a Picket Fence

Here we are standing the woods. Which path should we take?
Rumpus Original, Sex

Mandy Len Catron

Jun 25, 2018

Mixed Feelings: The Power and Limits of Labels

Maybe I’m not bisexual. What am I?
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Mandy Len Catron

May 29, 2018

Mixed Feelings: Your Divorce Won’t Ruin Your Kids

Marriage is one way of housing love. But there are a hundred other houses—sometimes you just have to build them yourself.
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Mandy Len Catron

Feb 14, 2018

Mixed Feelings: Am I Too Fat For Love?

We don’t like to think that love traffics in the same biases that shape our culture—but of course it does.
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Mandy Len Catron

Dec 7, 2017

Mixed Feelings: How Do You Break a Heart?

What should love cost us? What do we owe one another? What, especially, do we owe those who have chosen to love and trust us?
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Mandy Len Catron

Aug 22, 2017

Mixed Feelings: Happy Wife, Happy Life

Ending a relationship is hard, but it’s not as hard as quitting an institution. And the thing we often forget about marriage is that it is an institution.
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Mandy Len Catron

May 31, 2017

Mixed Feelings: Why Do Men Always Want to Settle Down?

Many women do want to get married, and that’s a perfectly reasonable choice. The problem, then, is that when a woman says she doesn’t want to marry, many people find this hard to believe.
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Mandy Len Catron

Mar 28, 2017

Mixed Feelings: The Emotional Labor of Listening to Men Complain

In the first installment of “Mixed Feelings,” a science-based advice column, Mandy Catron offers counsel on handling a partner’s obsession with their ex.