The Inward Empire By christiandonlan Feature A new father with early-stage MS sets out to understand the interiors of his daughter’s mind, and his own.
Angrily Experiencing the Best Days of Our Lives By Linda Kinstler Feature Ukrainian author and poet Serhiy Zhadan writes about resisting corruption and coping with loss in a society that is spiraling senselessly into conflict.
The Daughter as Detective By Alice Bolin Feature A bibliophile tries to understand her father through his favorite Swedish mystery books.
The Bungled Bank Robbery That Ended in a Landmark Legal Ruling By Longreads Feature In 1958, John Leo Brady got his lover pregnant and decided to stick up a bank to fund a new life. It ended with a murder, a Supreme Court case, and the formation of the Brady rule.
La Otra By Longreads Feature When a woman and her daughter moved in next door, Jaquira Díaz found her world was suddenly turned upside down.
How To Build An Intellectual By Hedia Anvar Feature For one young immigrant, growing up Iranian in New York City meant raising herself.
City on a Hill By Leslie Kendall Dye Feature A dementia patient’s daughter begins to question her own grasp on reality.
‘I Had Nothing To Do With It But Have Been Punished’: Issac Bailey On His Brother Moochie, the Murderer By Tori Telfer Feature Issac Bailey wants us to recognize that the families of perpetrators need just as much support as the families of victims.
The Camouflage Artist: Two World Wars, Two Loves, and One Great Deception By Mary Horlock Feature In the first war, Joseph Gray used his art to reveal his fellow soldiers. In the next war, he used it to hide them.
A Woman’s Work: Home Economics* (*I Took Woodworking Instead) By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson tallies the costs and benefits of love and cohabitation as a woman artist living in a patriarchy.
Old In Art School By Longreads Feature At 64, Nell Painter left a secure teaching position and went back to school to study art.
Trying to Kill the Want By Longreads Feature I was a grown, multi-degreed, loved, moneyed, professionally powerful woman who did not have the strength to wait one-third of an hour before having a drink.
The Power in Knowing: Black Women, HIV, and the Realities of Safe Sex By Minda Honey Feature An invitation to appear in a PSA prompts Minda Honey to reflect on the responsibilities of safe sex, and her imperfect past.
A Beginner’s Guide to Fly Fishing With Your Father By Heather Radke Feature It was the place he came to feel wild, and I was ready to trespass into the world of men.
The Cold War and its Fallout By Vincent Czyz Feature A son approaching middle age looks back on a volatile relationship with his father.
Viv Albertine on Dating Again in Her 50s By Longreads Feature In my teens I was upset that I was too young to go out with any of the boys in my favorite bands. Now they’re all with women who weren’t even born when I had that thought.
Sex Workers vs. The Internet By Rick Paulas Feature Since the dawn of the internet, online platforms have allowed clients to take advantage of sex workers. Now, they’re fighting back.
Ghost Writer: The Story of Patience Worth, the Posthumous Author By Joy Lanzendorfer Feature The most remarkable thing about Patience Worth wasn’t that she was dead. It was that all she wanted to do was write books.
A Frustrating Year of Reporting on Black Maternal Health By Danielle Jackson Feature Stories of women of color dying of childbirth have dominated headlines — but little has been done to change postpartum care.
The Difference Between Being Broke and Being Poor By Erynn Brook Feature It’s a recognition that comes in the aisle of a grocery store.
The Menace and the Promise of Autonomous Vehicles By Jacob Silverman Feature What does it mean to experiment with technology that we know will kill people, even if it could save lives?
Drought In Post-Apartheid Cape Town: An Interview with Eve Fairbanks By Aaron Gilbreath Feature United in a common struggle, the drought has leveled the racially divided city’s physical and social barriers in profound ways.
Wrestling With My Father By Brian Gresko Feature Brian Gresko considers the lingering consequences when the only touches between father and son are abusive ones.
Anthony Bourdain and the Missing Piece By Ian Frisch Feature With magic, the goal is to give someone something they can carry around with them for a while.
Fairy Scapegoats: A History of the Persecution of Changeling Children By Longreads Feature Distraught over a sick or disabled child, parents would torture — sometimes even kill — what they believed to be a malevolent stand-in for a stolen baby.
‘I Love What Human Voices Do Together’: An Interview with Neko Case By Will Hermes Feature Neko Case talks about collaboration, women warriors, women inventors, men with excellent falsettos, losing her home to a fire, and feeling lucky in ‘a great sea of loss.’
Meet the New Mormons By Sarah Scoles Feature Is it possible to be queer, lefty, and a Latter-Day Saint? After leaving the church, Sarah Scoles sets out to understand liberal Mormons.
A Crocodile In Paris: The Queer Classics of Qiu Miaojin By Ankita Chakraborty Feature As the first woman in Chinese literature to come out as openly gay, Qiu Miaojin adopted and humanized the bestial expectations of a cruel public.
A New Yorker, and a Sick Person By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her memoir, Porochista Khakpour recalls fashioning herself after her artist aunt’s example.