Category: Writing

The writer describes her process of reporting and shaping her recent essay, “The State of Waiting,” which explores love in the shadow of war and immigration policy.

One man’s quest to find his son lays bare the reality of Palestinian life under Israeli rule.

Adolfo Davis hoped a Supreme Court ruling would give him a chance at a new beginning. But nothing about freedom turned out as he expected.

The inside story of author Blake Bailey’s grooming of middle-school girls.

Pocahontas may seem like a strange vehicle for discussing our gay villains. But Disney gets inventive when they need to circumvent white people’s historical responsibility for genocidal atrocities — and queerness is a useful scapegoat.

Two women gave birth on the same day in a place called Come By Chance. Half a century later, their children made a shocking discovery.

The story of a Somali family uprooted by war and separated by America’s broken refugee resettlement system — and the siblings who brought them back together.

How a journalist found her voice as her mother lost hers.

Learning lessons about love while living in a 1961 Artcraft mobile home in Moab, Utah.

To catch a serial killer.

The quest to save the American chestnut tree.

“I think there is a better-than-good chance that our behaviors will change as a result of this pandemic. I am currently creating a ledger and thinking about opportunities, not just for innovation, but for a better humanity.”

Could shrunken heads from the Amazon hold the key to curing cancer?

In a progressive New Jersey community, racial solidarity is complicated.

A small sampling of standout essays published this year.

Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.

Meet Eric Feigl-Ding, the town crier of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Australia, some 30,000 people live in a state of legal uncertainty crafted by politicians.

A hidden diary, a love story, and a mystery.

“People are dying after joining a “pro-choice” suicide forum. How much is the site to blame?”

Last week, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released on Disney+. Jeanna Kadlec takes this opportunity to explore how Disney has dealt with their most powerful of witches.

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

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

“A friend who teaches at another university tells me that a new Yiddish word has been invented: oysgezoomt, ‘over-exposed to Zoom,’ as in ‘Ich bin azoy oysgezoomt!’ (‘I’m so done with Zoom!’)”

Congratulations to Matthew Salesses, Tim Requarth, Mojgan Ghazirad, Shanna B. Tiayon, Joe Fassler, and The Counter, our partner in co-publishing Fassler’s piece.

On letting go of potential and other myths of greatness.

“If we’re lucky enough to be able to shelter in place and we’re not using that time to launch podcasts and personal projects and life-hack our way to some cargo-cult pastiche of normality, are we somehow letting the side down?”

In isolation, Stephanie Land finds surprising relief from PTSD — and discovers she is able to write again.

“With a drink in my hand and earplugs responsibly in place, I’m very aware that I’ve spent more than half my life essentially standing in the same spot: off to one side of the stage (close but not too close), eyes forward, shifting weight from foot to foot.”

June Amelia Rose remembers coming out in her youth to a turbulent family as her mother died of cancer.