The Cost

“I dreaded the day my godson would run up against a white person’s prejudice.” Rilla Askew on race in America and a family’s nightmare.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 16, 2014
Length: 20 minutes (5,065 words)

Everybody Loves Walter

The story of a homeless man who became the guardian of a California beach and its birds

Author: Kit Stolz
Source: Latterly
Published: Nov 18, 2014
Length: 8 minutes (2,050 words)

18 Hours in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station

The writer spends a long day observing life in the notorious Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. The station—reviled in Israel because of its reputation for prostitution and crime—also houses a Yiddish library, two synagogues, a church, “a dime-store megamall,” a health clinic for asylum seekers and artists’ studios.

Published: Dec 13, 2014
Length: 20 minutes (5,000 words)

Longreads Best of 2014: Sports Writing

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in sports writing.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 16, 2014

Are You Woman Enough for the UFC?

Taffy Brodesser-Akner embeds with the intense female fighters of the UFC.

Source: Matter
Published: Dec 9, 2014
Length: 31 minutes (7,840 words)

What It Was Like to Be Basquiat’s Lover

Three scenes of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s life with his longtime lover Suzanne Mallouk, as sketched by Mallouk’s friend Jennifer Clement.

Published: Dec 15, 2014
Length: 8 minutes (2,000 words)

Songs In The Key Of Life

Though blinded at birth, Stevie Wonder found a different vision through his music.

Source: British GQ
Published: Dec 9, 2014
Length: 23 minutes (5,880 words)

The Weird and Secretive World of Christmas Tree Salesmen

A look at the strange seasonal industry of Christmas tree sales.

Source: Men’s Health
Published: Dec 12, 2014
Length: 9 minutes (2,291 words)

Cyrus Vance Jr.’s ‘Moneyball’ Approach to Crime

A profile of the District Attorney of New York County and his data-driven approaches.

Author: Chip Brown
Published: Dec 2, 2014
Length: 22 minutes (5,712 words)

A Beautiful Day

After his death, a daughter looks into her father’s family history: “In old age, long after his retirement from the engineering faculty at Syracuse University, my father, Harry Gruenberg, began to have flashbacks about his life in Vienna before he escaped in 1939.”

Source: Ploughshares
Published: Dec 1, 2014
Length: 31 minutes (7,816 words)