Stories, Streets, and Strength in It Was Her New York
C.O. Moed reflects on her memoir, New York roots, and the rhythm of resilience in a voice shaped by laughter, loss, and love.
Co Moed brings the raw pulse of New York’s Lower East Side to the page with a voice that’s as unflinching as it is intimate. A streetwise storyteller with a background steeped in music, photography and performance, she captures life’s humour, grit, heartbreak and resilience with sharp clarity and a lyrical rhythm all her own. Her debut memoir It Was Her New York – a BookLife Editor’s Pick and winner of the Firebird Book Award Judges’ Pick – is a stirring collection of true stories and snapshots drawn from her life as a queer woman navigating family, grief, and the city she calls home. In this conversation, Moed reflects on the cultural fusion of her neighbourhood, the irreverent humour that shaped her storytelling, and the process of distilling 1,400 blog entries into a resonant memoir. She also shares insight into her upcoming works, her love of photography, and the strength it takes – both emotional and physical – to lift stories off the ground and into the world.
A powerful debut full of grit, humour and heart—Moed’s voice is unforgettable and her stories deeply human.
How did your upbringing on New York’s Lower East Side influence the themes and narratives in “It Was Her New York”?
When I meet strangers on the subway or at bus stops and we start talking (as native New Yorkers often do) if we are from the Lower East Side we immediately recognize one another– there is a no bullshit, just a direct, in-your-face-you-need-my-help, street-smart, moxy/sassy quality. That Lower East Side personality and accent has a rhythm unlike any other part of New York because we had (and still have to some degree) all these different communities mushed together on the street – I wrote HER NEW YORK from that street. It’s how I talk when I am at my most relaxed and at my most pissed off – down to the bone.
In “It Was Her New York,” you blend humor with poignant reflections. How do you balance these elements to engage readers?
Maybe being raised on the Marx Brothers movies had something to do with it? But, honestly, I wasn’t trying. That’s just how I experienced and communicate things. Definitely on the Lower East Side there is an irreverence about everything – you did not dare take yourself too seriously. No matter how bad circumstances were or if you won the lottery, someone had something to say about it that would make everyone crack up.
Your memoir intertwines personal stories with broader cultural observations. How do you decide which personal anecdotes to include?
I was raised under Florence’s piano and I read music before I read English, so everything was and is musical to me. When I started putting HER NEW YORK together from 1400 stories I had posted on a blog, I had an arc/a structure of about 100+ stories about life as Florence got sick and died and going on after she died. All the while, I was constantly seeking “home” as a place to land, to feel safe and recognizable, if only to myself.
New York is a city of mass transit, taxis and walking. The more I put together HER NEW YORK, the more it became the stories of trips I took every day as I went from Florence’s home to work to the pharmacy to the park to the subway to the doctor’s office. To bring it all together, I lined each story up on index cards. This allowed me to “listen” to the music of how one story flowed into the next and how that home and that walk to home emerged.
“It Was Her New York” has received critical acclaim, including the Firebird Book Award Judge’s Pick and BookLife Editor Pick and Distinguished Feature, Independent Press Awards – LGBTQ Nonfiction. How has this recognition impacted your writing journey?
You mean besides my suspicion that some fellow writers now treat me with a bit more respect? It was amazing and very healing to be seen and heard through my work – to be affirmed that my writing didn’t suck and I wasn’t out of my mind to attempt such a feat. The book competition awards and interviews helped banish lots of those doubts. But it was more than that. I lift weights and the first time I deadlifted 100 pounds (about 45 kg) I cried because I experienced for the first time how strong and capable I was. Putting IT WAS HER NEW YORK out into the world was like lifting that weight. I found out not only what I was capable of, but how important and affirming the stories in the book were to readers.
Your upcoming work, “Home Sweet Home,” focuses on photographs of familiar places. How do you use photography to complement your storytelling?
I like pictures. I had a hard time learning to read English and pictures really helped tell me the stories all around me; they explained the world around me. So, when I write, a lot of it is me describing a picture. And when I take a picture, I hear a story in my head.
Your upcoming work, “The Consequences of Penises and Other Unexpected Moments” suggests a candid approach. What inspired you to explore these themes in your writing?
I identify as Queer, so dating men and their penises was a bit unexpected. And what else does a writer do but write about what is going on? So, the collection has some great writing about terrible relationships and some great writing about great relationships like falling for my husband, which has been a much different and much more fun relationship than past ones.
As an author who has navigated both personal and professional writing, what advice would you offer to emerging writers seeking authenticity in their work?
I approach writing like an athlete approaches training. It’s a daily grind of repetitive actions, where you succeed and where you fail. All that effort results in words on the page that work. Like the weights I lift, I am lifting that pen over and over and over again and filling pages with crap (so much crap) and then rewriting and rewriting until suddenly something goes WHOOSH and it lifts off the page into OH YEAH!
If you are just starting out, I highly recommend The Artist’s Way by Judith Cameron. It built my daily writing muscles and solidified my sense of my right to write. The more I worked that way the more I recognized my own unique voice the more I recognized the people/teachers/mentors/fellow writers there to support me and cheer me on. And the more that unfolded the more I knew who to avoid when sharing my work.
Let’s get real: fellow writers, mentors and teachers are like boyfriends and girlfriends. They are either on your side and want you to succeed or they are idiots who come on like they know shit. Find the ones who celebrate your wins, cheer you on despite your failures and support your dreams. And whatever you do, NEVER GIVE UP.
