Tarell Alvin McCarney’s Broadway debbut,, “Choir Boy,” is a tender coming of age story about a queer Black boy at a prestigious boarding school.
Profiles & Interviews
Sam Lipsyte on ‘Mental Archery,’ the Quest for Certainty, and Where All the Money Went
“It’s difficult to say what you really think. You’re too aware of the traps, the dead ends, the cul-de-sacs of utterance: all the ways we let cliché steer us in a certain direction, force us to say not quite what we mean…”
‘In a Marriage, You Grow Around Each Other’: An Interview with Tessa Hadley
Tessa Hadley on gaining the sense of authority she needed to write fiction, the authors whose work opens the door for her to write, and the way we are formed by our connections with other people.
Sarah Moss on Brexit, Borders, Bog Bodies, and the ‘Foundation Myths of a Really Damaged Country’
Sarah Moss’s tale of Iron Age reenactors and parental abuse is her way of addressing Brexit. “Putting the skulls of the ancestors up in some attempt to hold back history never works.”
The Science of Dreaming
Science journalist Alice Robb on why we need to take our dreams seriously.
Longreads Best of 2018: Profiles
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in profiles.
Thank You for Not Being Afraid, Pat Maginnis
Compromise and political reform only take you so far; sometimes you need to shake the whole system.
Guy Gunaratne on the ‘Push-Pull of Ancestry and Meaning’ in London
Guy Gunaratne’s Man Booker-longlisted “In Our Mad and Furious City” recognizes multiple, overlapping versions of London and its inhabitants, examining the ways violence can bubble up through the city’s fissures.
Selling Vintage Records in Tokyo
Listening to music with a Tokyo record store owner forges a deeper bond than any shared language.
The Need for Distance: Jaclyn Gilbert on Writing and Running
For author Jaclyn Gilbert, revising her writing is much like doing the same running loops over and over, to the point where she doesn’t have to think about where she’s going anymore.
