A triptych shows images of a forest floor with mushrooms rising, a singing bird, and a cloudy sky. Each image has a square around it, as though to focus the attention of the viewer on something discrete.

Longreads features

Failure To Lawn

On what a dying patch of turfgrass can teach us about water scarcity, ecological repair, and the lies we tell ourselves about success.

The Secret Door

“When we read, we make believe. We aren’t duped or ensorcelled. Deep down we decide. We make ourselves believe.”

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?”

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Recent editors’ picks

Hard Rain

Wyatt Williams | Harper’s Magazine | May 22, 2026 | 8,568 words

“The battle over weather modification.”

Darde Ghorbat

Yasmin Roshanian | Off Assignment | May 5, 2026 | 2,175 words

“The pain of alienation.”

You Must Remember This

Jonathan Weiner | The American Scholar | June 1, 2026 | 6,524 words

“On the nature of autobiographical memory.”

Are There More Bunnies in Toronto?

Nicholas Hune-Brown | The Local | July 2, 2025 | 2,616 words

“I never used to see rabbits in Toronto. Then they were everywhere. Then I lost my mind.”

Why Are Fish So Gay?

Lars Horn, Sabrina Imbler, Lulu Miller, and Joseph Osmundson | Orion | May 27, 2026 | 4,189 words

“A conversation about finding community in the aquatic.”

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Weekly Top 5

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Stories from Mina Tavakoli, Lindsey Adler, Joshua Jackson, Ben Tarnoff, Paloma Karr, and Jon Greenaway.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

an image of a webpage that says "Find Your Next Great Read"

Learn to Love Your Search Results Again.

Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender.

The Longreads questionnaire

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Excerpts from The Atavist Magazine, our sister publication

Open Season

Colorado’s San Luis Valley was a wildlife poacher’s paradise. Then an undercover federal agent arrived.

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.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Longreads reading lists

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Join Longreads today to access our Top 5 archive

Become a paid member to browse our weekly recommendations, along with other benefits.

Gift this article