Ushering My Father to a (Mostly) Good Death

A personal essay in which Karen Brown recalls conspiring with her father in his final weeks to find some humor in the pain.

Source: Longreads
Published: Nov 24, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,613 words)

A Refuge for Jae-In Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major

While Seo-Young Chu earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University, an English professor sexually harassed and raped her. In this searing, formally inventive essay, Chu processes her traumatic experience and recovery in the poetic and academic forms she learned at Stanford, and she refuses to be silent.

Source: Entropy
Published: Nov 3, 2017
Length: 27 minutes (6,756 words)

The Picture in Her Mind

After an unauthorized Joan Didion biography came out, followed by the Didion documentary The Center Will Not Hold, people have started assessing Didion’s legacy and the author’s fascination with storytelling itself.

Source: The Point
Published: Nov 21, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,966 words)

How the Sandwich Consumed Britain

To perfect a culinary staple as ubiquitous and timeless as the sandwich “is a question of using tenacity, knowledge, know-how, flair.”

Author: Sam Knight
Source: The Guardian
Published: Nov 24, 2017
Length: 25 minutes (6,285 words)

Finding My Way into a New Form: An Interview with Teju Cole

Steve Paulson interviews Teju Cole about why he left Twitter, his photographic inspirations, how he delights in the beauty of sentence fragments, and his meditative approach to combining text and photography in his book, Blind Spot.

Source: The Millions
Published: Jul 5, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,150 words)

The Rise and Fall of the English Sentence

Writing has made our syntax richer and more complex — and also increasingly distinct from spoken language.

Source: Nautilus
Published: Nov 16, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,643 words)

We’ll Be Paying For Mark Halperin’s Sins For Years To Come

Eve Fairbanks, arguably one of the most talented living political writers, spells out exactly how Mark Halperin damaged our political discourse, and political journalism in general — and draws a compelling through-line to the election of Donald Trump.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Nov 22, 2017
Length: 6 minutes (1,648 words)

Who We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Weinstein

New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris writes about his ardor for Annabella Sciorra’s art.

Published: Nov 22, 2017
Length: 6 minutes (1,535 words)

Roger Goodell Has a Jerry Jones Problem, and Nobody Knows How It Will End

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, elevated both his team and America’s sport to all-time highs, but in this age of athlete protests and declining owner influence, can an individual with Jones’ stature—and arrogance—exist within modern-day football? Inside the growing crisis between Jones, commissioner Roger Goodell, and the NFL.

Source: ESPN
Published: Nov 17, 2017
Length: 21 minutes (5,411 words)

Europe’s Heart of Darkness

In the busy Greek shipping port of Aspropyrgos, both legal and illegal trade thrives among the refineries and warehouses, and the immigrants who live here struggle to make a home in a Greece that is trying to preserve its economy and identity.

Source: 1843
Published: Oct 24, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,163 words)