Kristen Arnett on Taxidermy, Memory, and “Mostly Dead Things” By Tobias Carroll Feature “What’s considered high art? What’s lowbrow? What are those things? That’s something that, as a person who like, lives at 7-Eleven, I’m extremely interested in.”
Mama Looks for Melanin By harmonyholiday Feature Harmony Holiday remembers her mother’s years of trauma-bonding in search of new love, after the death of her mercurial yet brilliant father.
Editor’s Roundtable: Gossip, Dirt, and Reality (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Kotaku, and The Globe and Mail.
The Gymnast’s Position By Dvora Meyers Feature Aimee Trepanier was proud to showcase the pose that started her 1993 gymnastics floor routine in a billboard ad off I-15 in Salt Lake City. But when Utahns looked up, that’s not what they saw.
True Roots By Longreads Feature One woman quits coloring her gray hair and investigates the human and environmental costs of this contentious female beauty standard.
Talk Like an Egyptian By Cary Barbor Feature Cary Barbor traverses language, culture, and class to connect with her new family.
The Artificial Intelligence of the Public Intellectual By Soraya Roberts Feature Today’s public intellectuals have their own version of the American Dream, where one person, on their own, can achieve anything — including being the smartest person in the room.
The Year of the Cat By Elisabeth Donnelly Feature Elisabeth Donnelly looks back at a relationship with a wily cat during a lonely time in upstate New York.
Editor’s Roundtable: Cities, And How They Used to be Good (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary This week, Longreads editors discuss stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The CT Mirror, and Engadget.
Editors Roundtable: 170 Million Pieces of Trash Orbiting the Earth and No One Knows How to Use an Apostrophe (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary This week, Longreads editors discuss stories in Outside Magazine, Backchannel (WIRED), and The New York Times: Styles.
‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop By Danielle Jackson Feature Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
This Month In Books: ‘What Creates That Need To Leap?’ By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter has one foot out the door.
Editors Roundtable: Violence of Men, Money, and Space (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary Catherine Cusick, Kelly Stout, Ethan Chiel, and Aaron Gilbreath discuss stories by Wil S. Hylton, Josephine Livingstone, Jesse Barron, and Rivka Galchen.
Editors Roundtable: Alma Matters, Raisin Hell, and Upstairs Cocaine (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary This week, we’re discussing stories in The Cut, Vulture, The New York Times, Topic, and The Atavist.
We All Work for Facebook By Livia Gershon Feature Digital labor is valuable even when we do it for free. Should we get paid?
Editors Thinking About Editing at the AWP Conference By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary The only way to work as an editor and a writer is to continue learning from other editors and writers.
This Month In Books: Botanize Your Past To Save the Future By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter is overflowing with regional fiction, travel writing … and retro-botany.
I’ve Done a Lot of Forgetting By Jordan Michael Smith Feature When I was a kid, I wanted my antisemitic tormentors to accept me. I wanted to be their friend.
And What of My Wrath? By Sara Fredman Feature Cersei Lannister could have been a great antihero, but she was on the wrong show.
House Un-American By Leslie Kendall Dye Feature On public lives, secret memoirs, and censoring the dead.
Born to Be Eaten By Eva Holland Feature What’s at stake in the fight over development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? A caribou herd, and a culture that relies on it.
Who Do You Belong To? By Emily Lackey Feature When she dipped her heart into someone else’s relationship, Emily Lackey discovered how to define love on her own terms.
At Transformation By Jane Rideau Demuth Feature On the cusp of a life-changing procedure, Jane Rideau Demuth makes peace with the paths that brought her here, and the obstacles she had to wrestle with along the way.
The Erotic Thriller’s Little Death By Soraya Roberts Feature What/If references the celebrated steamy genre of the 80s and 90s, but lacks its guts. Why can’t any of the new neo-noirs go all the way?
Confessions of a Lapsed Catholic Dancer By Kate Branca Feature Kate Branca considers the body as an instrument of faith.
Shovel, Knife, Story, Ax By Erika Howsare Feature When you live with animals, you collect killing stories.
America Is Still Hard To Find By Lily Meyer Feature Kathleen Alcott’s latest novel is a dramatic reenactment of the ethical dilemmas posed in antiwar activist Father Daniel Berrigan’s ’60s manifesto.
How Refugees Die By Longreads Feature Wars and heightened border security have created a humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
An Audience of Athletes: The Rise and Fall of Feminist Sports By Britni de la Cretaz Feature Billie Jean King once tried to find a sustainable business model for feminist sports coverage. Then women’s fitness tried to revive the swimsuit model.
Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand By Longreads Feature The singular singer released her groundbreaking album in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington, and used her art and appearance as weapons in the Civil Rights struggle.
Becoming Family By Jennifer Berney Feature Jennifer Berney explores how queer families challenge traditional notions of heredity and paternity.
The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning By Rachel Vorona Cote Feature Nowadays, we live online, and so we grieve here too. But there are limits to the comfort digital mourning can provide.
The Psychiatrist in My Writing Class and His ‘Gift’ of Hate By Rani Neutill Feature Rani Neutill recalls a literary workshop in which a white man critiqued her ability to write in “proper” English.
‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop By Danielle Jackson Feature Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
The Omen of the Wasps’ Nest By Marlene Adelstein Feature As she prepares to leave the home she shared with her ex, Marlene Adelstein finds herself fixated on the husk of a nest hanging in the yard.
Reimagining Harper Lee’s Lost True Crime Novel: An Interview with Casey Cep By Adam Morgan Feature “Somewhere along the way it became very clear to me that I was writing the book she never would.”
Falling Stars: On Taking Down Our Celebrity Icons By Soraya Roberts Feature Celebrities act as a symbol of capitalism. When we question it, we question them too.
There Is No Other Way To Say This By Melissa Batchelor Warnke Feature “Tell them on the outside,” Carolyn Forché’s Salvadoran mentor instructed her. Her memoir is her latest attempt. Its elliptical lyricism, like that of her poetry, runs circles around censorship.
Longreads editors discuss stories in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Kotaku, and The Globe and Mail.