The Anthologies of John D’Agata

Literary feuds often feel sad and empty, but intelligent, measured critiques advance human knowledge and get people thinking. Although not a response to the recent Atlantic piece about writer John D’Agata’s take/mistake on the essay form, this piece by another essayist adds many welcome dimensions to this ongoing debate around the definition and nature of the essay, and the role of facts and art in storytelling.

Published: Jul 28, 2016
Length: 33 minutes (8,401 words)

Chain Reaction

Cycling culture has the reputation for being a boys club filled with patronizing shop clerks and a highly stratified, male-centric attitude, but Canadian female mechanics are dismantling that gender normative bro-show and increasing access and respect for female cyclists.

Source: Maisonneuve
Published: Jan 3, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,299 words)

‘See What Y’All Can Work Out’: The State of Empathy in Charleston

Charleston’s—and our nation’s—systemic racism, through the lens of the Dylann Roof trial.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 3, 2017
Length: 31 minutes (7,836 words)

Diseases of Despair: A Small Ohio City Fights an Epidemic of Self-Destruction

These women are trying to survive an epidemic of self-destruction in small-town and rural America. Death rates have risen sharply among whites, particularly women, particularly those with a high school education or less — the white working class that played a key role in the November election. Last year, overall life expectancy in the United States fell for the first time since 1993, when HIV was rampant.

Today there is no emergent virus running amok. Instead, Americans are dying from a rash of pathologies, sicknesses and addictions that experts call “diseases of despair.”

Source: Washington Post
Published: Jan 2, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,775 words)

On Coming of Age and Sexual Identity: Darling Nikki

“How does a girl figure out, amidst the crushing misogyny all around her, how to pick out the avenues that will prove most emancipatory, pleasure-giving, and life-sustaining? I’m sorry to say that this skill remains as urgent now as it ever was, so maybe I have “Purple Rain” to thank for that, too.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 2, 2017
Length: 6 minutes (1,645 words)

Becoming Ugly

“There are days when all I want is to become a human road sign, a blinking hazard to any man misfortunate enough to cross my path: ‘I WANT TO OFFEND YOUR SIGHT. I WANT TO OFFEND YOUR EVERYTHING.'”

Source: Jezebel
Published: Dec 29, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,127 words)

A Resolute 2017: A Reading List

“As 2017 dawns, I thought I’d check in with my old self, dust off 2016’s goals and set some new intentions.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 1, 2017

In Defense of Facts

The essay is a flexible, accommodating form of writing based in fact. Writer William Deresiewicz takes writer John D’Agata to task for what he believes is D’Agata’s misleading account of the essay’s history, its form and its modern incarnation, and he skillfully dismantles the vague but inaccurate concept of the essay that D’Agata’s three large essay anthologies promote. This is no literary feud. In times like ours, where the media and science are under attack, the President-elect lies without concern for fact-checking, and many Americans discount truth itself, this debate concerns those of us outside academia.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jan 1, 2017
Length: 17 minutes (4,352 words)

The Fighter

The story of Sam Siatta, a Marine Corps veteran of the war in Afghanistan who returned home with PTSD and landed in prison after committing a crime he says he doesn’t remember.

Published: Dec 28, 2016
Length: 73 minutes (18,429 words)

Unnatural Disasters Series

A devastating four-part look at the connections among white supremacy, racism, privilege, misogyny, and climate change, and the effects they all have on women and people of color in places where climate change-related disasters occur.

Author: Bani Amor
Source: Bitch Media
Published: Dec 16, 2016
Length: 29 minutes (7,276 words)