Under the Knife By Margot Harris Feature Margot Harris grapples with guilt following a labiaplasty procedure.
Happiness is Fleeting By Longreads Feature Good grief, adolescence is difficult. Luckily Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell found solidarity and guidance from The Peanuts Gang.
I Had To Leave My Mother So I Could Survive By Elisabet Velasquez Feature Elisabet Velasquez reckons with a lifetime of disharmony with her religious, mentally ill mother.
‘A World Where Mothers Are Seen’ By Vanessa Martir Feature Vanessa Mártir introduces Writing the Mother Wound, a series of essays on mothering presented in collaboration with Writing our Lives and Longreads.
Dispatch from Puerto Nowhere By Robert Lopez Feature Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.
End of Discussion By Soraya Roberts Feature There’s no such thing as a 140-character exegesis: the (non)-discourse around “Joker” is the latest to prove that social media is designed for emotion, not dialogue.
Bikini Kill — and My Bunkmates — Taught Me How to Unleash My Anger By Longreads Feature While away at summer camp, Melissa Febos discovers the power of her generation’s rage and feminism.
How to Survive a Vivisection By Rachel Somerstein Feature After a traumatic experience with childbirth, Rachel Somerstein struggles to bond with her newborn daughter.
The (Loud) Soundtrack to My Struggle with Faith By Anna Gazmarian Feature After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Anna Gazmarian grapples with her evangelical upbringing, and finds solace in screamo music.
Hello, Forgetfulness; Hello, Mother By Max Feature Peering into the mirror of her mother, Marcia Aldrich wonders whether she too is sentenced to dementia.
A Single Sentence By Longreads Feature In an clandestinely written memoir, a jailed Turkish novelist and political dissident remembers the single sentence that changed everything at the moment of his arrest.
The Girl I Didn’t Save By Longreads Feature Cameron Dezen Hammon reflects on her frustrations as a Christian music minister for the terminally ill, unable to heal a cancer patient she cared for, and struggling to be compassionate at her belligerent Jewish father’s bedside.
Grow Up By Soraya Roberts Feature Being an adult at the end of the world means listening to children tell the truths grown-ups refuse to actually hear.
To Love and Protect Each Other — From Bigotry By Jay Deitcher Feature After Jay Deitcher sits silent as his wife is verbally assaulted by his father’s racist friend, he grapples with the ways his family has been muted by trauma.
What Should Universal Basic Income Look Like? By Livia Gershon Feature Andrew Yang made it news, but we need a better plan.
The Bread Thread By Emily Weitzman Feature Emily Weitzman condemns the persistence of slut shaming over different stages in her life, and combats it with humor and…bread.
Grandiose and Claustrophobic: ‘Prozac Nation’ Turns 25 By Anne Thériault Feature Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestseller is deeply rooted in a specific, Gen-X cultural moment. Can it still speak to us in 2019?
How to Predict the Unpredictable By Katie Gutierrez Feature After the death of her dog, Katie Gutierrez grapples with the ripple effects of her decisions — and how to live with uncertainty as a mother.
Cahiers du Post-Cinéma By Soraya Roberts Feature The movie theater was once a kind of lay church, with festivals like TIFF serving as annual religious holidays — until new houses of worship opened online.
The Art of Acceptance Speech Giving By Michael Musto Feature Gearing up for the Emmys, Michael Musto looks back at some of the best, worst, and weirdest instances of performers expressing gratitude as they received their shiny trophies.
Keeping My Promise to Popo By Anne Liu Kellor Feature As Anne Liu Kellor says goodbye to her Chinese grandmother in the hospital, she taps into buried memories and family trauma.
Tramp Like Us By Longreads Feature Can an American family learn to become outdoorsy in New Zealand, where the natural world is part of the national DNA? Sort of.
McDreamy, McSteamy, and McConnell By Samuel Ashworth Feature Congressional fan fiction is real, it’s glorious, and it might be reshaping our political world.
It Comes in Waves By Lilly Dancyger Feature Years after her cousin was killed, Lilly Dancyger is haunted by images of murdered women in the news.
What’s Happening to My Body? By Devorah Heitner Feature Devorah Heitner reflects on the ways she is reclaiming her relationship to her own body while grappling with the legacy of her mother’s poor body image and early death.
Prayers to Lucia By Heather Quinn Feature When a high-risk pregnancy jeopardizes their eyesight, Heather Quinn explores the expectations of motherhood and finds common ground with a patron saint.
After Three Children, Reclaiming My Body and My Mind By Ukamaka Olisakwe Feature In the wake of childbirth and postpartum complications affecting her mental health and her marriage, Ukamaka Olisakwe picks herself up and starts over — in grad school.
Hot for Teacher By Longreads Feature When a student in her writing workshop submits a piece suggesting his character could ‘take’ a teacher just like her ‘atop her desk,’ Courtney Zoffness is flooded with memories of men touching her against her will.
The Myth of Making It By Soraya Roberts Feature If the most financially and critically successful artists don’t feel successful, maybe there’s something wrong with how we think about success.
Fugitive Justice By Jennifer Lunden Feature After stumbling upon the scene of the capture of an escaped murderer, clinical social worker Jennifer Lunden grapples with the polarities of innocence and guilt, social neglect and social justice.
