We Use Language as a Spade By Krista Stevens Highlight “Though the embryo was only seven weeks old, I loved it. I loved it and wanted it, and its life ended.”
Whatever Happened to ______ ? By Longreads Feature Envy over her success led her husband, also a writer, to become violent. She fights every day for her safety — and to avoid being relegated to obscurity like so many writers who are mothers.
William Gibson on How Science Fiction Portrays Reality By Krista Stevens Highlight “Every fiction about the future is like an ice-cream cone,” Gibson says, “melting as it moves into the future.”
Searching Sephora for an Antidote to Aging — and Grief By Abby Mims Feature Five years after her mother’s death, while still grieving and suddenly middle-aged, Abby Mims turns to beauty products to cure what ails her.
The Price of Dominionist Theology By Eve Ettinger Feature After leaving fundamentalism, Eve Ettinger grapples with the loaded theological heritage of evangelical personal finance teachings.
What Brings True Happiness: the Booze or the Bonding? By Krista Stevens Highlight “But there’s nothing wrong with a nudge toward examining the difference between what makes us happy and what is merely habitual.”
Elizabeth Wurtzel Made it Okay to Write ‘Ouch’ By Sari Botton Highlight Today’s memoirists and personal essay writers owe a debt of gratitude to the Prozac Nation author for rewriting an inhibiting rule.
How Bagel Makers’ Union Local 338 Beat NYC’s “Kosher Nostra” By Krista Stevens Highlight ‘“A bagel,” the newspaper of record explained in 1960, “is an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis.”’
What I Did for (Strange) Love By Laura Bond Feature As a teen, Laura Bond went all out to meet Depeche Mode — and to hang onto her best friend.
Finding Solace in the Charged Particles of the Aurora Borealis By Krista Stevens Highlight “Cree First Nations believe ‘the northern lights are dancing spirits of loved ones who have passed on.’”
Risking Everything for a Better Life By Krista Stevens Highlight Migrants looking for greater opportunity, safety, and freedom sometimes stow away in the wheel wells of jetliners in a bid to escape.
Addiction’s Seismic Effects on a Family By Sarah Evans Feature A mother confronts the painful truths of trying to save a son who’s a danger not only to himself, but to the rest of the family as well.
Infatuation By Deena ElGenaidi Feature Deena ElGenaidi considers the ways in which adoring Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine from afar in her teens and early 20s provided a safe outlet for expressing desire.
(Who Gets to) Just Up and Move By Nicole Walker Feature Nicole Walker contemplates the nature of migration, and realizes there are two places you can never escape: the planet and your own head.
Deconstructing Disney: The Princess Problem of ‘Frozen II’ By Jeanna Kadlec Feature Audiences wanted Disney to give Elsa a girlfriend. But the Frozen franchise is at the center of the corporation’s latest princess project, whose nationalist concerns are decidedly here for the gay agenda.
If My Scars Could Talk By Tega Oghenechovwen Feature Tega Oghenechovwen contemplates the ways in which acute childhood trauma can infect and compromise relationships later in life.
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2019 By Longreads Feature The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
Witness Mami Roar By Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez Feature Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez remembers growing up undocumented in the shadow of her mother and father’s tumultuous relationship.
Renovating a Family By Christine Kalafus Feature After her husband’s infidelity, Christine Kalafus re-architected her marriage. Now she needs to let her son in on the plans.
A Beloved Art Critic Sings His Swan Song By Sari Botton Highlight “Drink was destroying my life. Tobacco only shortens it, with the best parts over anyway.”
The Christmas Tape By Wendy McClure Feature Wendy McClure recounts how an old audio tape of holiday music becomes a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
On Course for Certain Disaster By Krista Stevens Highlight “Ten Navy sailors were killed and scores more were injured. It was the Navy’s worst accident at sea in 40 years.” And it was all avoidable.
An Addict, a Nurse, and a Christmas Resurrection By Suzanne Ohlmann Feature Working the night shift on an intensive care unit, Suzanne Ohlmann brushes up against death, Jesus, and her biological father.
How Rob Krar Helps Others Outrun Depression By Krista Stevens Highlight “I think a good way to describe my depression is an inability to feel happiness. It’s just this gray zone. I have this beautiful life that I can’t appreciate.”
Seedy By Elizabeth Logan Harris Feature Elizabeth Logan Harris recalls an incident in ’70s-era Radio City Music Hall when unwanted attention to her teenage body put her in league with her father.
In Jo’s Image By Jeanna Kadlec Feature Jeanna Kadlec considers the impact of Little Women’s matriarchy — and its heroine — on the formation of her own queer identity.
Who was Behind the First State-Sponsored Computer Attack? The Russians, Quelle Surprise By Krista Stevens Highlight “Don’t go screwing with information that belongs to innocent people!”
A Woman’s Work: Becoming a Home of One’s Own By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson considers what it takes to recover from grief, build strength for the future, and become one’s own center of gravity again.
The Guy who Ordered a Hit On His Stepmother for $5 By Krista Stevens Highlight Death, delivered as per your instructions.
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