Finding the Magic in Writing with Lidia Yuknavitch
On shitty first, second, and third drafts; embracing the struggle to write; and more.
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Longreads features
Was It Worth It?
“I didn’t think about those nachos even once. I had never experienced anything like it. Is this, I asked my friends, how it feels to be normal?”
The Wayfinders
The Marshall Islands’ first national soccer team discovers what “home” can mean—on a field in Arkansas.
The Memory Maker
OpenAI’s Sora allowed you to deepfake yourself. Users started to remember things that never happened.
The Age of Dinosaurs
“Ruminating on extinction, under the slanted tutelage of my child, felt like a responsible thing to do.”
Hollow Body
On attention to craft in defiance of AI.
Defining Color
“A deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral, bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet william.”
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Weekly Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we are celebrating writing from Paul Collins, Daniel Lefferts, Mitch Therieau, Joseph Bullington, and Hanif Abdurraqib.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Exceptional storytelling from Craig Fehrman, Leila Jordan, Kerry Howley, Tessa McLean, and Caity Weaver.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week collects standout work from David Moudy-Miller, Caitlin Wash Miller, Kevin T. Baker, Alex Vadukul, and Jordan Ritter Conn.
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Learn to Love Your Search Results Again.
Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender.
The Longreads questionnaire
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Vauhini Vara
The author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age and The Immortal King Rao on memorable meals and books about whales.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Ibram X. Kendi
The Stamped and How to Be an Antiracist author on the superpower he’d like to have, the outlets he likes to read, and his latest work, Chain of Ideas.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Patrick Radden Keefe
The New Yorker staff writer and author of the new book London Falling on running, writing in the morning, a life-changing childhood trip, and more.
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Excerpts from The Atavist Magazine, our sister publication
The Good Catholics of Buffalo
With thousands of US soldiers dying in Vietnam, a righteous group of young New Yorkers embarked on a secret mission to bring the war machine to its knees.
The Dark and Stormy Tale of a ShantyTok Band
When a scraggly band of folk musicians arrived to tour the UK, residents of a small Welsh town were enamored—until they learned that the band’s leader ruled with an iron fist.
‘I Promise You, You Have Your Soul.’
Three mothers, one struggle: saving their children with schizophrenia.
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Longreads reading lists
Holding Pattern: A Reading List on Waiting . . .
Everyone waits. No one is spared the waiting room, one way or another. Seven stories on an essential human condition.
Long Live the Rom-Com
Love, Actually, Never Died: A reading list on the evolution of the romantic comedy.
Seeing is Believing: A Reading List on Making Meaning from Data
Eight stories on the power and beauty of visual communication.
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