Editor’s Pick

This week’s Member Pick is “Yellow,” a story by Antonia Crane about the days following the death of her mother. The piece will be featured in Black Clock #17 this summer and is adapted from her forthcoming book Spent. We asked her to tell us how the story first came together.

Manufactured homes in trailer parks could be an affordable way to house a growing number of seniors on a budget: “Seniors who can live on their own cost the country relatively little—they even contribute to the economy. But those who move into nursing homes start to run up a significant tab—starting at $52,000 a year. […]

An investigation of the drone strikes that killed Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old American-born son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki: “One day in early September, Abdulrahman woke up before the rest of the house. He tiptoed into his mother’s bedroom, took 9,000 Yemeni rials—roughly $40—from her purse, and left a note outside her bedroom door. He then snuck […]

A family confronts the costs of providing for a child who is autistic: “Now we’re plagued by perpetual guilt that we could — should — do more for our son. But like a lot of families with a disabled child — even families like ours, with some means — we’re faced with a Sophie’s Choice: […]

Today’s guest pick comes from Emily M. Keeler, a writer, critic, and the editor of Little Brother Magazine. She recommends two stories, “To Err, Divine, so Improvise” by Kaitlin Fontana in Hazlitt and “Afterlife” by Chris Wallace in The Paris Review.

A young woman tries out a bionic hand after losing her fingers and toes: “Her dad wonders if the financial burden of the bionic hand is worth it. A left hand device won’t be considered until that’s clear. If the bionic hand’s too hard or awkward to use, will it collect dust on her nightstand? […]

The writer gains a new perspective on who her parents were after examining old photos and letters they left behind after they died: “As I worked on my blog, I read these and similar letters again and again, and wondered how the man I thought my father was could have written these words, words that […]

A visit to Iceland and CCP Games, the company behind the sci-fi video game Eve Online. The game has grown to 500,000 users and $65 million in revenue: “Economists have written dozens of papers celebrating the sophistication of Eve’s economy and the amazing level of industry among the players, who basically create everything within the […]

[Fiction] From the short story collection Pastoralia. A family in the near future copes with poverty, loss, and magical-realism-caliber consequences: “Aunt Bernie’s a peacemaker. She doesn’t like trouble. Once this guy backed over her foot at FoodKing and she walked home with ten broken bones. She never got married, because Grandpa needed her to keep […]

The U.S. is experiencing significant demographic changes. In 2011, people of color made up more than half of all the country’s births. A look at the cultural shift that’s occurring as young people begin to inherit the country: “Demographic changes — even seismic changes like those the U.S. is going through — happen over decades. […]