At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side By Adam Boffa Feature Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
Longreads Best of 2018: Essays By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays.
Duet for a Small Porpoise’s Extinction By Kimi Eisele Feature Kimi Eisele contemplates coherence, the near extinction of the vaquita, and the expensive bycatch of being human.
The Neanderthal By Jen Gilman Porat Feature Jen Gilman Porat seeks a genetic excuse for her husband’s barbaric table manners.
Seventeen By Steve Edwards Feature Steve Edwards revisits an early heartbreak to ask: “How do we find compassion for who we used to be?”
Who Even Watches the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Anymore? By Soraya Roberts Feature Three million women tuned in last year. Here’s why.
Writing to Avoid Erasure By Aram Mrjoian Feature After finding a note left by his grandfather, Aram Mrjoian considers how writing about the Armenian diaspora could help prevent history from being forgotten.
‘Emerging’ as a Writer — After 40 By Jenny Bhatt Feature Jenny Bhatt recalls the rites of passage that led to her shift in identity from corporate executive to woman writer of color.
Alexa de Paris By Miles Marshall Lewis Feature Miles Marshall Lewis remembers a love of Prince and Paris.
Who Cares? : On Nags, Martyrs, the Women Who Give Up, and the Men Who Don’t Get It By Longreads Feature Some women successfully free themselves from emotional labor, but I don’t want to give up the work of caring. I just want others to care as well.
Eating to America By Naz Riahi Feature When Naz Riahi was 9, she escaped tragedy in Iran only to be confronted by a cruel new world in America. Food became her solace and her tool for assimilating.
The Wrong Pair By Lisa W. Rosenberg Feature After decades of shame, discrimination in the ballet world, and some serious back pain, Lisa W. Rosenberg concludes it’s time to down-size her double-E knockers.
The Lasting Effects of the Lolita Complex By Lacy Warner Feature Lacy Warner examines the downward turn of actress Dominique Swain’s career, and how the trouble began the moment she grew up.
The House on Mayo Road By Dure Amna Feature Dur e Aziz Amna considers the year in Pakistan when everything changed.
Consider Who Can Afford the Oyster By Michelle Weber Highlight If the personal is political, then food is political — and food writing should be, too.
A Mysterious Crack Appears: Past Trauma and Future Doom Meet in “Friday Black” By Alana Mohamed Feature In Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s fantastical short story collection, the strangest fantasy of all is that people try to act morally in a corrupt world.
Re: Hate Mail By Amy Kurzweil Feature After receiving a string of menacing emails, Amy Kurzweil wonders: Can she safely extend a writer’s empathy to men who harass her on the internet?
Falling for My Booty Call By Sarah Kasbeer Feature Sarah Kasbeer reflects on a history of hookups — and why they left her cold.
Partners in Crime: The Life, Loves & Nuyorican Noir of Jerry Rodriguez By Michael Gonzales Feature Michael Gonzales remembers a real friendship and the makings of a brutal crime novel.
Paks 1918: A Pogrom and a Prelude By Howard Lovy Feature Howard Lovy retells his grandfather’s childhood accounts of anti-Jewish violence and blood libel in pre-Holocaust Hungary.
A Confederacy of (Dangerous) Dunces By Sari Botton Highlight Rebecca Solnit argues that the American Confederacy lives on, with Donald Trump at the helm.
The Resplendent Photography of Carrie Mae Weems By Danielle Jackson Highlight Carrie Mae Weems may be our best contemporary photographer.
The Secrets We Keep By Deena ElGenaidi Feature Deena ElGenaidi takes stock of the truths she and her Muslim family members hide from one another.
Theater of Forgiveness By Hafizah Geter Feature Hafizah Geter contemplates the personal and cultural legacy of violence against Black bodies.
After World War I, Horror Movies Were Invaded By an Army of Reanimated Corpses By Longreads Feature Were early horror films, with their long, angry processions of the undead, repeating the mass trauma of the First World War, or foreshadowing the coming of the Second?
Dress You Up in My Love By Doree Shafrir Feature Doree Shafrir reflects on how Halloween changed for her after struggling with infertility.
The Possessed: Dispatches from the Third Trimester By Sara Fredman Feature On pregnancy, demons, and Stranger Things.
The First Time I Moved to New York By Alexander Chee Feature The fantasies Alexander Chee had of New York before he moved there didn’t fully prepare him for what it was like to love the city.
The Boy Who Wasn’t My Boyfriend By Allie Zenwirth Feature Allie Zenwirth falls in love within the confines of an all-male Chasidic school.
