Telling Stories In Order to Live: On Writing and Money By Sarah Menkedick Feature Sarah Menkedick examines the perils inherent in trying to earn a living as a full-time writer.
10 Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2020 By Longreads Feature Stories by Edwidge Danticat, Etgar Keret, Valeria Luiselli, and more.
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.
Happily Never After By Soraya Roberts Feature By protecting ourselves and no one else, we destroy ourselves along with everyone else.
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 God Phone By Leora Smith Feature What happens when ordinary people play God to strangers? Leora Smith explores the history of one of the oldest art installations at Burning Man and the conversations that unfold there.
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.
Violence Girl By Longreads Feature How a young bilingual Latina became one of punk’s enduring icons and helped create a new musical universe.
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.
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.
Jersey Girl By Longreads Feature Too Japanese for Americans and too American for the Japanese, one New Jersey native traces the influence of racism on her parents’ careers and her own 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.
What the World’s Most Controversial Herbicide Is Doing to Rural Argentina By Longreads Feature After enormous lobbying efforts, Monsanto’s GMO soybeans, treated with Roundup, became the country’s largest export, as cancer rates and other health issues skyrocketed.
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.
Still Waters By Soraya Roberts Feature The muted response to Todd Haynes’s “Dark Waters” is depressingly similar to our culture’s muted response to climate change
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.
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.
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 Queering of the Baby Bells By Longreads Feature Highly public pressure campaigns against telephone companies were the crux of early LGBTQ activism.
Wonderful Things: The Kid Creole and the Coconuts Story By Michael Gonzales Feature Combining island sounds with stylish clothes and an unforgettable stage presence, one of New York City’s most original bands helped influence 1980s pop culture, and they never sacrificed their unclassifiable artistic vision.
‘They Were Growing Seedlings…Which Would Sprout To Become Supreme Court Justices’ By Hope Reese Feature Ruth Marcus discusses the Federalist Society’s 30-year Justice-grooming project, the botched investigations, and everything else that brought us “too big to fail” Brett Kavanaugh.