Faylita Hicks considers what it means to be a Black nonbinary activist in the age of Trump — and questions how the social justice movement has changed the way they have sex.

With physical distancing the order of the day as COVID-19 spreads, cultural locales — sites for communal experiences, like museums and theaters — are emptying out. What are we sharing if we’re not sharing these spaces? And were we really sharing them to begin with?

“It’s strange to think that the Righteous Brothers outlive my mother. Sometimes I pretend they are singing to her.”

In the midst of a pandemic, nature reminds Susan Krawitz that miracles are possible.

June Amelia Rose remembers coming out in her youth to a turbulent family as her mother died of cancer.

Navigating distance and time in the age of uncertainty.

Our stories matter. And they are our legacies for future generations. (Plus: some free writing resources.)

“Dreams, like Scheherazade’s stories, keep us alive, keep our ships from crashing too soon, keep our candles in those ocean vessel’s rooms aglow.”

Naz Riahi recalls her vibrant childhood in a suburb of Tehran, and considers how the harsh realities imposed by the still new Islamic Republic seeped into her family’s life.

Sarah Fay reflects on four years spent in solitude (and isolation [and loneliness]), viewing it through the lens of punctuation.

Dialogue, Twitter-style: you get called out on social media. People pile on to you. Other people pile on to the pile-oners. Soon everyone’s anxious or angry or both, no one’s really talking (or listening), and a few tech CEOs are buying new houses in Jackson Hole.

If you are the family breadwinner, how do you calculate the value of time with your children?

Sarah Miller thinks about climate change and other current horrors, and what it’s like just being sad forever.

Moe Tkacik reveals the web of shadiness lurking behind WeWork’s facade.

An entanglement with her shrink-stalking protege teaches Susan Shapiro something about forgiveness.

The claws of diet culture dig in early, and they dig in deep.

When she loses a pregnancy, Anna Lea Hand searches in vain for vital advice and information.

Paraic O’Donnell chronicles the progression of his MS with clarity, beauty, wit, and no small amount of sadness. Picking the most striking paragraph in this essay full of them is a fool’s errand.

“Even with a preponderance of evidence and testimonies, every man on trial got away with murder. This fact was not front-page news but tucked beneath odd stories called ‘Flashes of Life.'”

Emily Gould reconsiders the likelihood of women’s first-person writing bringing about change.

Jessica Lynne remembers a long distance love affair that began in Miami and the Billie Holiday song that kept her company through the relationship’s transitions.

I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free… to be reduced to a uterus and some boobs! Good times.

It’s surprising when stodgy institutions award progressive artists, and surprises, even good ones, are alarming — so we immediately burden the winners with the weight of symbolism.

As a nursing mother newly exposed to the harsh realities of milk production, Liza Monroy reconsiders the dairy cow, and questions the meaning of compassion.

After a childhood filled with intrusive medical interventions for misaligned eyes, Liane Kupferberg Carter wrestles with learning to see herself and others clearly.

Daisy Alioto reconsiders the nature of architecture while researching window alarms.

In an excerpt from her recovery memoir, Erin Khar recalls the depths of her self-destruction as a heroin addict.

Once upon a time, nightlife journalist Michael Musto didn’t set the strongest boundaries with the boldfaced names he covered.

She gets a mansion and she gets a boat and she gets a jet! And you get to suffer and then maybe pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if you’re lucky enough and bare enough of your private pain.

“Jeanine Cummins can write about Mexico — but she will be judged on whether her writing actually captures the experiential and emotional and ethical complexity of that place, and she will be judged with extra care because she is an outsider.”