Looking at Alaska: Seven Stories About The Last Frontier State
Alex Tizon investigates a bizarre missing persons case. Eva Holland goes snowshoe-to-shoe with some of Alaska’s boldest babes. And newly minted memoirist Blair Braverman talks about her writing process and her team of sled dogs.
Why Are So Many Inmates Attempting Suicide at the California Institution for Women?
Something is driving female inmates at the California Institution for Women to attempt suicide at a rate five times higher than the state and national averages. Prevention is not a priority.
How To Plot A Novel
In their “How to Plot a Novel” package this week, New York magazine explores the inner workings of fiction from every angle. Christian Lorentzen analyzes how story works and affects readers. Boris Kachka provides an encyclopedia of every possible kind of plot, a history of plot, and a piece about computer mapping of story plots. Bonuses: Sadie Stein on the worst endings in history, and a round-up of quotes from famous authors about where they stand on plot as a device.
Is America Any Safer?
The United States has spent more than $1 trillion since 9/11 to protect our country and respond to acts of terrorism. Brill examines what we’ve done right, where we’ve gone wrong, and the number of security gaps we still need to fill.
The Office Politics of Workplace Fiction by Women
Women perform so many of the essential duties that compose modern bureaucracy. It’s about time the subset of American fiction you might call “office literature” started to reflect that.
‘A Honeypot For Assholes’: Inside Twitter’s 10-Year Failure To Stop Harassment
The social media company’s free-speech roots, coupled with an overwhelmingly white male leadership that was blind to the problem, led to total paralysis when it came to fixing its troll problem.
Monstrous Births
“Childbirth is not empowering. It’s grisly, frightening, and astonishing stuff.” Sarah Blackwood pushes back against the moralizing effect of birth stories.
The Devil Is Loose
Between the drug trade, immigration, Border Patrol pursuits and poverty, paramedics in the border town of Laredo, Texas get little rest but lots of respect. Law requires medics treat anyone in need, so here among the cactus and mesquite, “Border Patrol agents get spit as a topping at a local takeout joint; paramedics get discounts.”
The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web
A growing body of research is changing the way scientists think about symbiotic forest fungi, and revolutionizing our understanding of plant communication, cooperation and friendship.
Walls and Fences: A Reading List
These reads explore walls and fences as physical borders, but also things we’ve built in our minds.
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