Army of Me By Longreads Feature A woman who doesn’t feel like going to work today stays in bed and looks at the internet instead. She finds a blog by a fed-up call center employee who complains about the customers.
Losers’ Lunch By Ben Rothenberg Feature Dining out with courtsiders, a rogue, impish species in the tennis ecosystem.
Lyrical Ladies, Writing Women, and the Legend of Lauryn Hill By Michael Gonzales Feature Joan Morgan’s “She Begat This” looks back at how Lauryn Hill crashed through hip-hop’s glass ceiling, while our critic looks at how the author and a cadre of black women writers did the same for hip-hop music journalism.
For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors By Laura Esther Wolfson Feature My Soviet husband said we’d need 24-hour day care for any children we might have. Many years and the fall of an empire later, I finally realized why he said it.
Shooting For Truth By Adam Skolnick Feature Adam Skolnick visits director Chris Weitz on the set of his new film, Operation Finale.
A History of American Protest Music: Which Side Are You On? By Tom Maxwell Feature Just as we were in the 1930s and ’60s, America is suffering a moral crisis. We have to decide which side we are on: hate and exclusion, or justice, inclusion, and democracy?
Not Quite Not White By Longreads Feature Sharmila Sen grew up understanding distinctions between castes and religions, between the educated and the illiterate. Race was a distinction she didn’t understand until she came to America.
Working Through the Apocalypse: An Interview with Ling Ma By Ryan Chapman Feature In Ling Ma’s “Severance” — a novel she began to write after getting laid off, while living partly on severance pay — the characters keep going to work, even though they know it’s the end of the world.
To Be Clean By Natassja Schiel Feature A tender relationship with a fellow exotic dancer shows Natassja Schiel how to love her sister, a recovering addict.
The Horse Was a Lie (The Horse Is Here With Us Now) By Levi Vonk Feature In Mario Chard’s “Land of Fire,” was it the truth or a lie that killed the migrants in the desert? And what if that’s the wrong question? What if we say it was a horse?
I Would Never Say That, But the Character, He Said It: An Interview with Catherine Lacey By Tobias Carroll Feature “When I write, I’m creating a character, and then I’m just performing that character, and typing what they say.”
Semi-Fluid States: The Rigid Line of Straightness By Minda Honey Feature Minda Honey interrogates her sexuality and questions the future of straight-by-default.
An Inquiry Into Abuse By Elon Green Feature Allegations that Richard Nixon beat his wife, Pat Nixon, have circulated for decades without serious examination by the journalists who covered his presidency. It’s time to look more closely at what’s been hiding in plain view.
Why Do Men Fight?: An Interview with Thomas Page McBee By Cooper Lee Bombardier Feature “When I started asking myself questions about my own notions of masculinity. I just felt so limited, so suddenly afraid of becoming the kind of man I’d grown up in fear of.”
The Word ‘Hole’ By Longreads Feature The first page was blank. On the second page, in an almost illegible calligraphic script, was written “Manifesto for a House in the Sky.”
Defeating the Celluloid Axis By JW McCormack Feature The invisible language of film permeates Christian Kracht’s “The Dead,” prose that is neutral and shot through with so much darkness, you occasionally can’t find the light.
Giving Up the Ghost By Emily Urquhart Feature After his death, Emily Urquhart ‘sees’ her brother with regularity. Nearly 20 years later, stories and science help to explain why.
Brown Girl with Bubblegum By Lisa Williamson Rosenberg Feature As a mixed-race kid with free-form hair, Lisa Rosenberg believed learning to blow bubblegum bubbles would be her ticket to an idealized (white) American girlhood.
The Last of the Live Reviewers: An Interview with Nate Chinen By Matthew Kassel Feature Nate Chinen may have been the last full-time jazz reviewer at any American newspaper. He says jazz hasn’t been in a better place since the ’60s — but the commercial infrastructure is broken.
Ancestor Work In Street Basketball By Onaje X. O. Woodbine Feature The basketball court is a place where young black men feel comfortable mourning death, but are there crucial elements missing from their grieving practices?
Convenience Store Woman By Longreads Feature If the convenience store and Japanese society are so similar, why can Keiko Furukura function in one and not the other?
A Girl’s Guide to Missiles By Longreads Feature A professor returns to the California military base where she grew up to make sense of her family’s role developing weapons for the US government.
On Not Being Able to Read By Tajja Isen Feature In law school, they told me I wouldn’t be able to read anymore. That the pleasure of the text, like a lover in a non-law degree, would slowly grow opaque to me.
An Introduction To Death By A.M. Homes Feature Raising a teenager of her own offers author A.M. Homes a glimpse into her mother’s experience of raising her.
Finding True North By Amy Bracken Feature Thousands of Haitians who fled the United States on foot last summer have started very different lives in Canada.
At Home on Carmine Street By Abigail Rasminsky Feature Abigail Rasminsky thought she’d survived a robbery unscathed. Then she realized it was following her everywhere.
Michelle Tea and the Betrayal of Queer Memoir By Alana Mohamed Feature Memoir is always a betrayal. When writing about life in queer subcultures, the harm of honesty can feel even greater.
Listening for a Way Out By Niya Marie Feature Growing up, Niya Marie sought refuge in Whitney Houston’s ethereal notes; as an adult, Marie found recognition in her silences.