“Leave Us to Our Peace”: A Pact Made in Love By Krista Stevens “The way we die is changing. So, too, is the way we think about dying — and about the opportunity, even the right, to die at a time and place of our choosing.”
Can Sinéad O’Connor Find Peace? By Krista Stevens “She can be shy and insecure. And yet she didn’t hesitate to stare down the cameras on American television to call out one of the most powerful men in the world.”
Finding Signs of Hope in Surprise Sugar Maples By Susan Krawitz In the midst of a pandemic, nature reminds Susan Krawitz that miracles are possible.
‘This Thing Grinds You Like a Mortar’: How Jessica Lustig is Fighting Coronavirus By Krista Stevens ‘“You shouldn’t stay here,” he says, but he gets more frightened as night comes, dreading the long hours of fever and soaking sweats and shivering and terrible aches.’
Will the Real Dwight Yoakam Please Speak Up By Krista Stevens “Whether this (continuous deflection) is intentional or not, it’s a good way of avoiding giving too much away.”
COVID-19: Dispatches from Sing Sing By Krista Stevens “Sing Sing was going into quarantine. Our movement was limited. No gym. Hospital and commissary runs limited to groups of ten. Staggered seating in the mess hall.”
What Does a Post-Apocalyptic Gated Community Look Like? By Ben Huberman For wealthy Americans, a dystopian future includes underground golfing in South Dakota.
Why I’m Giving Myself Permission to Keep Writing at This Time By Sari Botton Our stories matter. And they are our legacies for future generations. (Plus: some free writing resources.)
‘Grief is the Wake of Love’ By Krista Stevens “Dreams, like Scheherazade’s stories, keep us alive, keep our ships from crashing too soon, keep our candles in those ocean vessel’s rooms aglow.”
The Stories of Notre Dame, as Told by Timber and Limestone By Krista Stevens ‘“Notre Dame will come out of this experience enriched,” she says. “And so will we.”’
Bowen Yang is Simply Awesome By Krista Stevens “My dad every now and then will toe that line and be like, You could try women!” says Bowen, laughing. “And I’m like…Don’t. It’s almost an endearing kind of homophobia, if such a thing exists.”
Teaching Writing and Breaking Rules By Aaron Gilbreath Rules can ruin the kind of exciting language that makes literature rewarding, but some rules also enhance writing. It’s challenging to find the middle ground.
Moving Literary Life Off the Page By Aaron Gilbreath For one poet, conducting a satisfying literary life off-page required living life outside the classroom.
Coronavirus Could End Trump’s Chance at Reelection, But Things Are Too Terrifying Right Now To Feel Hopeful By Aaron Gilbreath One Republican offers a ray of light during these dark times: That this pandemic will end the Trump presidency.
An Unenviable Week of Firsts in Seattle Under COVID-19 By Krista Stevens “We didn’t know it yet, but we were living in a kind of laboratory of the country’s future. We were the first.”
The Zoo That Divided a Town By Aaron Gilbreath Exotic critters have gnawed the frail threads that once bound a small Ontario community.
Did the United States Booby-Trap a Vital Soviet Gas Pipeline? By Krista Stevens “Weiss…a subtle, under-the-radar bureaucrat who fought his country’s adversaries with red tape and a headful of contrarian ideas. I understood him as a man whose entire life was secrets. “
When Time Costs Too Much By Carolyn Wells If you are the family breadwinner, how do you calculate the value of time with your children?
Life Advice from Jazz Genius Sonny Rollins By Krista Stevens “Live your life now in a positive way. Help people if you can. Don’t hurt people. That works perfectly for me, man.”
The Consequences of Surviving By Carolyn Wells “As medicine advances, we have more survivors. But those survivors carry trauma to their graves.”
A Design Aesthetic That Lets You Succeed In a World That Doesn’t Care If You Fail By Aaron Gilbreath Every era bears its aesthetic burden. This is ours.
Mowing the Lawn to Map the Ocean Floor, One Long, Slow Pass at a Time By Krista Stevens “The thinking is that fleets of tireless, automated, uncrewed vehicles could one day criss-cross our waters, making maps where humans can’t or won’t.”
Some Inland California History Begins with an Orange By Aaron Gilbreath Even as California’s Inland Empire loses its citrus industry to urbanization, urbanites can still keep social ties by planting fruit trees in their yards.
Behind One of the Sketchiest Men, a Sketchy Woman By Sari Botton Moe Tkacik reveals the web of shadiness lurking behind WeWork’s facade.
Is the Weekly Shop Good For You? By Carolyn Wells Trudging to the grocery store to laden up with milk and toilet roll may seem like a chore, but does it improve your health?
The Man Who Lived in a Hole in Hampstead Heath By Krista Stevens “He knew there were a lot of people just like him, irregularly employed, regulars in pubs, the owners of passports and phones and all the right charger leads, only with nowhere stable to live.”
“Follow Along,” or How to Learn Flamenco Guitar with a Tocaora By Krista Stevens “Before he died a few years later, my father told me there were almost no tocaoras — female flamenco guitarists — in the world. If I kept practicing, he said, I could be one of the first.”
In Hot Pursuit of STS-50, High Seas Scofflaw By Krista Stevens What’s in the hold, captain? Oh nothing, just tonnes upon tonnes of illegal Chilean bass — nothing to see here!
The People We Love to Hate on Social Media By Aaron Gilbreath What the people we envy online can tell us about ourselves.