When ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Isn’t Fiction By Pam Mandel Highlight Growing up in the fundamentalist Christian “Quiverfull” movement, Hännah Ettinger saw her own story in Atwood’s vision.
The Diagnosis and Surgery I Had to Fight For By Sari Botton Feature A series of doctors made it harder for me to learn about my severe uterine condition, and receive the hysterectomy I needed for it.
How the Canadian Government Tried to “Remove the Indian From the Child” By Krista Stevens Highlight Betty Ann Adam tells how she was taken from her mother at age three, as part of Canada’s attempt to “remove the Indian from the child.”
Snow, Death and Politics By Longreads Feature While snowed in on the West Coast, Frances Badalamenti grapples alone with her father’s death on the other side of what feels like a dying country.
“Texas is Gilead and Indiana is Gilead” By Michelle Weber Highlight The Handmaid’s Tale is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for” for conservative women.
Pills and Thrills and Daffodils By Eva Tenuto Feature Years before Prince died of an overdose, his music provided a lifeline for Eva Tenuto.
On Island: Journeying to Penal Colonies, from Rikers to Robben By Roohi Choudhry Feature On journeys to Rikers Island in New York City and Robben Island in South Africa, Roohi Choudhry examines issues of incarceration and racism, and envisions a day when the convicted are no longer exiled to penal colonies.
The Currency of Cars: How to Leave a Husband By Debbie Weingarten Feature The rickety ’98 Volvo wagon didn’t look like much, but it provided Debbie Weingarten and her children safe passage to a new life.
Once You Reach the Top of Mt. Everest, There’s Nowhere to Go But Down By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Climber and explorer Cory Richards shares his challenges with PTSD, alcoholism, and infidelity.
How to Disappear By Alex Difrancesco Feature For Alex DiFrancesco, coming out as transgender—even to themself—wasn’t possible without first disappearing.
A Trip to Syria, Remembered By Pam Mandel Commentary In 2007, David Zoby went on an academic tour of Syria. He admits he was kind of a fraud, but he went anyway.
In the Shadow of a Fairy Tale: Overcoming the Evil Stepmother Stereotype By Krista Stevens Highlight Leslie Jamison explores the fraught role of stand-in parent as she considers her new life as a stepmother to a six-year-old.
Choosing Mother India By Pam Mandel Highlight “People insist that only an idiot would move from the land of the dollar to the 68-times-weaker rupee.”
The High-Water Mark: The Battle of Gettysburg, the Jersey Shore, and the Death of My Father By Dane A. Wisher Feature Contemplating history, family, and today’s America, Dane A. Wisher tells the story of spreading his father’s ashes on the battlefield at Gettysburg National Park and coming to terms with his life and death.
This Is God’s Property By Michelle Weber Highlight Kelsey Munger shares the story of a childhood spent being vigilant against the demons, witches, and werewolves her parents believed were stalking their family.
‘Because California Moves Through You’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Essayist Lynell George muses on California and the two cities—Los Angeles and San Francisco—that own a part of her heart.
Woman of Color in Wide Open Spaces By Minda Honey Feature While visiting national parks to detox from the oppressive whiteness of the MFA experience, Minda Honey is reminded the only places to retreat from whiteness in this country are the spaces women of color hold for each other.
Leave Them Alone! A Reading List On Celebrity and Privacy By Em Perper Reading List Why do we feel like we own celebrities—not just their art or their products, but their images and their personal lives?
Moved by Kim By Seth Davis Branitz Feature Seth Davis Branitz had an awful suspicion he’d feel relieved when, some day, his very troubled brother would pass. He had no idea about the other ends it would rapidly bring with it.
How a Story Becomes a ‘Hopeful Thing’: George Saunders on His Writing Process By Krista Stevens Highlight At the Guardian, the author recounts how it takes “hundreds of drafts” and “thousands of incremental adjustments” to form a story into a “hopeful thing.”
The Roots of Cowboy Music: ‘This Is the Music We Made. This Is the Land We Made.’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Commentary Oakland writer Carvell Wallace travels to Elko, Nevada, for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and reflects on what it means to be black and American.
Godwin’s Law, Trump’s Era By Pam Mandel Commentary “When we use Nazi imagery to describe Trump, nuance is lost.”
The Restless Ghosts of Baiersdorf By Sabine Heinlein Feature A small German town is haunted by its Jewish legacy and antisemitic past.
On Bearing Witness: Saving Chickens, Saving Myself By Krista Stevens Highlight Christine Hyung-Oak Lee reflects on seeing and “being seen” — the silent gift of bearing witness to one another and individual suffering as a way of offering comfort and hope.
‘I felt dirty, a lesser person somehow than when I had left a week before.’ By Michelle Weber Commentary Rafia Zakaria’s essay in The Baffler on flying while Muslim is an important read that exposes a long list of things that most white, non-Muslim Americans never have to worry about while traveling.
Follow the Oil Trail and You’ll Find the Girls By Riayn Spaero Feature A filmmaker travels the U.S. and Canada to speak with Indigenous women about the constant threats to their safety and their lives.
Screw You, and the Icelandic Pony You Rode In On By Michelle Weber Highlight Novelist Nell Zink, in n+1, takes readers on a rambling but sharp journey through writers and novels of the 20th century in the name of exploring realism, compassion, and justice in fiction.
A Fat Body and a Fat Mind: On Taking Up Space, Unapologetically By Michelle Weber Highlight Carmen Maria Machado’s stunning essay in Guernica on the power of women who take up space is an important read for people of any size.
The Boundless Possibility and Boundless Boredom of the Open Road By Michelle Weber Highlight Jacob Hoerger, in The Point, pens an essay on cars, road trips, and how they force us to create our own meaning.
Eating In Public Is a Spectator Sport When You’re Fat By Michelle Weber Highlight After navigating a lifetime of being fat (and ashamed) in the US, Jonatha Kottler moved to the Netherlands and found a whole new universe of exclusion.
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