Melissa Chadburn challenges her own belief that environmental justice issues are reserved for people of privilege.
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Defined by Want
Three meals a day don’t erase the scars of a childhood marked by hunger, violence, and loneliness.
Home Cooking: A Reading List
“In the following essays, writers interrogate the complicated pasts of place through food, express nostalgia for long-gone homes, and find belonging by sharing meals.”
“I wanted to be someone else”: A Reading List about Con Artists, Grifters, and Imposters
Jacqueline Alnes brings us eight stories about those who live to deceive.
The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy
Melissa Chadburn goes undercover as a temp worker.
The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy
Melissa Chadburn goes undercover as a temp worker.
The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy
A reported personal essay in which Melissa Chadburn writes about her work, under cover, as a temp, and considers the effects of temporary employment on those who have limited power and little choice but to work for low wages with no job security. With support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Longreads Best of 2018: Food Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in food writing.
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2017
The personal essays, original reporting, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
Every Year The Tree
Melissa Chadburn’s moving recollection of the Christmas trees of her difficult youth—from the ones she lifted from a grocery warehouse near the home for girls she lived in, to the ones she’d cart home from Home Depot in her twenties, to the one she picked out with her partner, at 33.
