From way back in ’80s Philadelphia, Elizabeth Isadora Gold remembers her first writing teacher, the mail art artist/lyricist Stu Horn.

What happens if the stories we tell ourselves about our lives leave us lonely, wrestling with meaning?

“He tried to explain that the tomb was his final creative act, one that he would make with love, as he had made ceramics daily for the past forty-four years.”

A professor embarks on a six-month binge of celebrity-led online courses.

In and around Los Angeles, natural and man-made disasters have been inextricable for almost two centuries.

When your name is Osama and you’re living in post-9/11 America, you always know The Question is coming.

“Although the world has made space for more diverse women, we are still expected to fill the role of the one who wants to be loved, to be a mother when perhaps we only ever wanted to paint, to write, to explore the world alone, on our own terms.”

“I’m working on a book about Arctic explorers, and that means swimming in a sea of sorrow.”

Captain Scott took jars to the Antarctic with him, and Edmund Hillary took one up Everest. Marmalade is part of the British national myth. Livvy Potts wants to know why.

A meditation on the nature of grief, at a time when the whole world seems to be grieving.

Beirut’s disintegrating sewage system and corrupt politics have put its residents in a shitty situation.

“She is more than an incident report that didn’t offer her dignity in death, to tell the truth of her murder.”

Upon discovering that her mother had been a member of the group Women Strike For Peace (WSP), Heidi Hutner becomes obsessed with feminist nuclear history.

“I only know that it is incredibly sad to admit to your children that you’ve been seeing videos of black men being killed since you were their age and that you haven’t been able to stop it.”

When “Who gets to go jogging without getting shot?” is an actual question a society has to ask, that society is fundamentally flawed.

The soft-focus Britain of Downton Abbey bears little resemblance to the real Britain collapsing under the weight of racism, austerity, and COVID-19. As Brexit plods on, it’s time for an honest reckoning of the history and future of this outsize little island.

“Once the love-language of a brand to its audience, the place of a modern mascot has never been less sure-footed.”

“What are you carrying dormant in your body that springs up when confronted with Black joy, Black power, Black brilliance, Black Blackness in the world?”

Ditching the Midwest for Southern California on the heels of a crushing divorce, the last thing Cheryl Jarvis wants is her 26-year old son for a roomie.

Bernice L. McFadden ruminates on all the things her mother has endured only to find herself spending her golden years in the midst of a deadly plague and state-sanctioned racism.

At an uncertain time in her life, Sejal Shah does Burning Man her own way.

More than 50 years after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, little has changed, and several groups are hoping to use policy and practice to fix this longstanding issue.

My favorite director, Lynn Shelton, died suddenly this month at the age of 54. Did the spirit of indie filmmaking go with her?

History may have pigeonholed her as Renaissance Italy’s most notorious seductress, but it’s high time we give the Duchess of Ferrara a closer look.

Scott Korb contemplates disgust — his own, yours — at the kind of magical thinking that promises (with fingers crossed) to protect us from all the causes of dying.

Edging, or extending the time leading up to an orgasm, is almost a character of its own in Normal People, Run, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It also has a lot to teach us about sexuality and consent.

New submissions guidelines, plus information about our new essay series.

Ella Dawson learns about the perils of break-up sex the hard way.

On masculinity, grief, and learning from suffering.

Newly single in her mid-50s, Pam Mandel swipes through dozens of selfies, including her own.