Charting the Love — and Betrayal — in Our Stars

A personal essay in which Cherise Morris turns to astrology and Beyonce lyrics to move through of a difficult moment in her relationship.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 9, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,598 words)

The Surgeon Who Works On Babies Before They’re Born

Meet Dr. Timothy Crombleholme, a practioner in the specialized field of fetal surgery.

Source: D Magazine
Published: Oct 1, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,372 words)

Things Fall Apart Turns 60

A brief history of Chinua Achebe’s debut novel “Things Fall Apart,” which was published 60 years ago.

Source: Mail & Guardian
Published: Oct 5, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,101 words)

On Washington’s McNeil Island, The Only Residents Are 214 Dangerous Sex Offenders

A legal mandate keeps Washington state’s most dangerous sex offenders in a controversial facility known as a civil commitment center. ‘Civilly committed’ means detained indefinitely. It’s a community safeguard because these men are likely to repeat their violent sexual crimes, but does civil commitment protect the general public?

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 3, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,367 words)

Heart Doctor

Novelist Angela Flournoy profiles Barry Jenkins, Academy Award-winning director of “Moonlight,” as he prepares to release his newest feature — an adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel, “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

Published: Oct 4, 2018
Length: 21 minutes (5,343 words)

The Elevator-Phobes of a Vertical City

New York City has more elevators than Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington combined — and every day, dozens of people acutely afraid of riding them need to find their way up and down the skyline.

Source: Topic
Published: Oct 2, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,672 words)

The Body and the Library

The body of a murdered woman was found outside the library where the author used to read as a young girl. The library, once a safe space to learn, dream, and indulge her imagination, became ominous and dangerous, a place where readers could get choked with the bag that held their books, a place for the brain and body.

Source: CrimeReads
Published: Apr 13, 2018
Length: 15 minutes (3,955 words)

Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father

A ground-breaking investigation into the potentially illegal financial schemes, tax evasions, and grandiose lies employed by Fred Trump and his son, Donald J. Trump, designed to create the illusion of the president as a self-made billionaire, and to falsely raise and lower the values of their holdings as needed to make money, and hide it.

Published: Oct 2, 2018
Length: 56 minutes (14,246 words)

What Does a Political Story Look Like in 2018?

An essay in which Roxane Gay reveals how she chose the short stories for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2018 — with an eye toward writing that engaged with the political in thoughtful, engaging, diverse and inclusive ways.

Author: Roxane Gay
Source: LitHub
Published: Oct 3, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,236 words)

The Morality Wars

Wesley Morris on culture, art, and criticism is essential reading: “Groups who have been previously marginalized can now see that they don’t have to remain marginal. Spending time with work that insults or alienates them has never felt acceptable. Now they can do something about it. They’ve demanded to be taken seriously, and now that they kind of are, they can’t not act…But as urgent as these correctives, cancellations, pre-emptions and proscriptions may be, they do start to take a toll. It can be hard to tell when we’re consuming art and when we’re conducting H.R.”

Published: Oct 3, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,517 words)