Stealing From the Dead

Did William Ernest Johnson III steal the homes of the dead by forging notary signatures to transfer ownership and flip them for a profit in Philadelphia neighbohoods ripe for gentrification or is he — as he maintains — a victim too?

Source: Philly Enquirer
Published: Jan 23, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,375 words)

How Virginia Woolf Taught Me to Mourn

“I couldn’t shake that crystalline, hyperaware feeling one gets on important occasions—on birthdays, for instance, or on losing one’s virginity. My father is dead, I said to myself, my father is dead. Again and again I said it, and still I failed to grasp what it meant.”

Source: LitHub
Published: Jan 25, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,400 words)

Elegy in Times Square

A personal essay in which Lily Burana, a former teenage peep show girl, looks back on a queer love story that began in New York’s notorious red-light district.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 28, 2019
Length: 7 minutes (1,880 words)

What Falls to Earth

In this personal essay, grieving the mysterious death of her father, Susanna Space seeks refuge in the study of meteors.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 25, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,200 words)

Is Chicago’s Legacy of Segregation Causing a Reverse Great Migration?

“Chicago’s population would be increasing if not for the black exodus. How can it be explained?”

Source: Chicago Reader
Published: Jan 24, 2019
Length: 15 minutes (3,992 words)

A 4-Year-Old Trapped in a Teenager’s Body

Like all the men in his family, Patrick Burleigh carried an extremely rare genetic mutation, which led to “precocious puberty” and a confusing, challenging childhood in which he experienced dramatic physical changes — like pubic hair — as early as age 2.

Source: The Cut
Published: Jan 16, 2019
Length: 25 minutes (6,372 words)

This 42-year-old boxer has a job at IHOP, two kids, and 11 titles. She isn’t done—yet.

Outside the ring, Nelson is, in the words of her friend and fellow boxer Tyrieshia Douglas, “a nice churchy lady.” She spends half an hour each day reading and discussing Bible verses with her longtime boyfriend. She’s a hugger, a baby nuzzler, a bestower of silly nicknames. Then she enters the ring and something terrifying emerges, something that won’t let her stop punching until she has annihilated the person in the opposite corner.

Source: Washington Post
Published: Jan 24, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,350 words)

Why Do the Oscars Keep Falling for Racial Reconciliation Fantasies?

The relationship is entirely conscripted as service and bound by capitalism and the fantastically presumptive leap is, The money doesn’t matter because I like working for you. And if you’re the racist in the relationship: I can’t be horrible because we’re friends now.

Published: Jan 24, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,200 words)

‘Nobody Is Going to Believe You’

Director Bryan Singer has been accused of sexual misconduct multiple times throughout the course of his career. A few of his alleged victims have come forward to share their stories. This story was originally set to be published in Esquire, but was killed by Hearst executives for unknown reasons.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jan 23, 2019
Length: 38 minutes (9,600 words)

Interstate 10: A Personal History

The desert stretch between Tucson and Phoenix is only bland and vacant if you keep your mind closed.

Source: Tucson Weekly
Published: Jan 10, 2019
Length: 11 minutes (2,756 words)