Krista Stevens

At Astra Magazine, Leslie Jamison examines her love-hate relationship with daydreaming. Imagining a life in which I don’t daydream means imagining the death of a part of myself that I hate—but it’s also a part of me that keeps me alive.

Steve Edwards contemplates how danger can shape-shift between thoughts, ideas, and action and what that ever-present danger means to us as we navigate being human in this world. One reason to learn to tell your own story, I have admonished students over the years, is that it may help you understand someone else’s.

Brigitte Cleroux faked her nursing credentials, and over decades, treated hundreds of patients across Canada. Sarah Treleaven attempts to follow the trail of fraud and deceit. Cleroux was already two decades into a life of pervasive dishonesty, one that had repeatedly resulted in punishment and humiliation. And yet she continued along her path, perpetually moving […]

Tim Requarth says the U.S. government needs to do more than raise awareness of the resources available to children orphaned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A 10-year-old in New York City who lost her father in the first wave of early 2020. Four children in Boynton Beach, Florida, left behind by a single […]

Leslie Jamison considers what it means to be in hospital, exploring the liminal spaces between sick and well.

Marina Benjamin recalls not wanting to eat much as a child, and suffering for it. I can’t explain it, or not in any way that will satisfy my parents, but the feel of food in my mouth causes me to recoil as though I’ve ingested something living: warm, wet, slimy, too hot, too cold, not […]

Victoria Livingstone considers the elliptical process of writing an essay. I struggled to write this essay even when I believed I was the singular author. Now my daughter continually reminds me that our steps intersect with the movements of those around us in illegible patterns. The rhetoric of walking resists order.

Nickole Brown reflects on how her inability to form memories as a result of childhood trauma had adversely affected her ability to survive. Survival has to do with remembering what you most do not want to face. It has to do with not turning away, in believing your own testimony, in writing it down. Then, […]

How, for over 50 years and often through song, Sesame Street has been helping kids from every strata of society to comprehend difficult topics and learn how to behave compassionately when faced with racism, serious illness, death, and more. The world was broken in half, but music, music could be the bridge.

Lisa Miller profiles Brandon Stanton and explores the evolution of and the power imbalances inherent in “Humans of New York,” which Stanton has recently turned into a grant-giving operation, going beyond images and words on social media to offer financial assistance to those he profiles. Stanton has raised nearly $8 million over the past 18 […]