2017

Charleston’s—and our nation’s—systemic racism, through the lens of the Dylann Roof trial.

These women are trying to survive an epidemic of self-destruction in small-town and rural America. Death rates have risen sharply among whites, particularly women, particularly those with a high school education or less — the white working class that played a key role in the November election. Last year, overall life expectancy in the United […]

“How does a girl figure out, amidst the crushing misogyny all around her, how to pick out the avenues that will prove most emancipatory, pleasure-giving, and life-sustaining? I’m sorry to say that this skill remains as urgent now as it ever was, so maybe I have “Purple Rain” to thank for that, too.”

“There are days when all I want is to become a human road sign, a blinking hazard to any man misfortunate enough to cross my path: ‘I WANT TO OFFEND YOUR SIGHT. I WANT TO OFFEND YOUR EVERYTHING.’”

“As 2017 dawns, I thought I’d check in with my old self, dust off 2016’s goals and set some new intentions.”

The essay is a flexible, accommodating form of writing based in fact. Writer William Deresiewicz takes writer John D’Agata to task for what he believes is D’Agata’s misleading account of the essay’s history, its form and its modern incarnation, and he skillfully dismantles the vague but inaccurate concept of the essay that D’Agata’s three large […]