Entertaining and infuriating exit interview with New York City’s mayor, in which Bloomberg defends the rich, criticizes the current mayoral candidates, and trumpets his record across crime, education and quality of life: “A common theme in the campaign to succeed you has been that you’ve governed primarily for the rich. “I’m fascinated by these comments—and […]
September 2013
Posted inEditor's Pick
The North Koreans Making It Down South
More than 25,000 North Korean defectors have escaped to South Korea to build new lives for themselves, but transitioning to a foreign way of living isn’t always so easy: “Defectors arriving in South Korea are debriefed intensively by security agents before going to the Hanawon rehabilitation complex, where they are given training in the skills […]
Posted inUncategorized
Reading List: Interviews with Awesome Women Authors
The best interviews with authors make you want to read—not just their work, but read in general, and read all the time, and read with a new fervor. * * * 1. “The Art of Not Belonging: Dwyer Murphy Interviews Edwidge Danticat.” (Guernica, September 2013) Danticat gives a beautiful interview, discussing her book Claire of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Reading List: Interviews with Awesome Women Authors
The best interviews with authors make you want to read—not just their work, but read in general, and read all the time, and read with a new fervor. * * * 1. “The Art of Not Belonging: Dwyer Murphy Interviews Edwidge Danticat.” (Guernica, September 2013) Danticat gives a beautiful interview, discussing her book Claire of […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Reading List: Interviews with Awesome Women Authors
New reading list from Emily Perper featuring picks from Guernica, Hazlitt, YALSA, and Bitch Magazine.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Christmas in Thessaloniki
The writer travels to Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, and talks to the mayor and other residents about they city’s social and economic life. Here, he speaks with Dora Seitanidou, a percussionist and university worker in her late 30s: “‘If we become increasingly fascist—and Greek society is becoming increasingly fascist—you have to put […]
Posted inUncategorized
Longreads Guest Pick: Christine Kim on 'What's Killing Poor White Women?'
Christine Kim is a civil rights advocate studying at Duke University School of Law. My favorite longread of the week is ‘What’s Killing Poor White Women,’ by Monica Potts, in The American Prospect. Health care is on the national stage. From Obamacare to health care costs to new state-run health exchanges, it seems that each […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Secret Life of Nuns
The writer stays with the Dominican Sisters of Houston and learns about the life they lead and the work they do: “‘I think a lot of them want some kind of sign,’ Pat says of the choice to wear the habit. ‘They want people to know.’ She also cites ‘that romanticism,’ as in (and this […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Jellyfish Are Taking Over
Jellyfish are wreaking havoc on human inventions like nuclear power plans and aircraft carriers—and they’re changing the ocean permanently, according to Lisa-ann Gershwin’s book Stung!: “Japan’s nuclear power plants have been under attack by jellyfish since the 1960s, with up to 150 tons per day having to be removed from the cooling system of just […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
This Is Our House
In Haiti, the country’s first little league team is inspiring hope for a young generation: “There are typical boyhood illusions drifting through the minds of those riding in the truck through the streets of Port-au-Prince. There are would-be rappers, of course—young Eminems and 50 Cents, little Lil Waynes, and in a few years, tiny Drakes […]