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Rich remembers Clayton Coots, a man who was his “surrogate parent,” and also one of the many closeted men and women who died before the cause of gay rights made such huge leaps in America: “This history is not ancient. My own concern about its preservation comes not from some abstract sense of social justice […]

In the 1970s, 19 families made their homes on Bald Head Island, one of North Carolina’s barrier islands: “They went for jogs and spotted sunning alligators and foxes that seemed to wonder who they were and why they were there. They watched loggerhead sea turtles trudge up onto the sand to lay their eggs and […]

The writer takes a closer look at the headlines, and sees the same people making the same case about Syria that they did for Iraq: “On April 26, for example, a story by Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt was entitled ‘White House Says Syria Has Used Chemical Arms.’ The factual substance of the article was […]

This week’s Member Pick is “Letter from Kufra,” a story by Clare Morgana Gillis, first published in the summer 2012 issue of The American Scholar. Gillis, who was featured on Longreads for her report after being captured in Libya, explains.

Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher will be helping Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. The inaugural pick was reported and written by Fresno State journalists Sam LoProto, Damian Marquez, Angel Moreno, Jacob Rayburn, Brianna Vaccari, Liana Whitehead and their professor Mark Arax.

Despite recent setbacks, there’s reason to believe that the gun-control movement is growing, and holding politicians accountable for their ‘no’ votes: “But then something unexpected happened. Some of the senators who’d voted ‘no’ faced furious voters back home. Even before Erica Lafferty, the daughter of murdered Sandy Hook Elementary principal Dawn Hochsprung, confronted New Hampshire […]

A week in the life of a young man diagnosed with schizophrenia and his mother who is caring for him: “It has been 10 years since he began thinking his classmates were whispering about him, four years since he started feeling angry all the time, and two years since he first told a doctor he […]

In 1982, author Linda Spalding served as a juror on Maryann Acker’s murder trial. She believed Maryann was innocent, but was dismissed from the jury after arriving late to the courthouse one morning. Acker ended up being convicted and has spent the next 30 years in prison. Spalding, whose feeling of guilt hasn’t subsided in […]

The story of Chris Kyle, a decorated sniper who wrote a best-selling memoir about his life as a SEAL. Kyle’s attempt to help a troubled veteran ended in tragedy: “After Routh arrived at the Dallas V.A., Jodi and Jen visited him in the evenings. A week later, he did not seem much better. He was […]

Picks from Emily Perper, a freelance editor and reporter currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps. Share your favorite stories in the comments.