Longreads

Bernice L. McFadden ruminates on all the things her mother has endured only to find herself spending her golden years in the midst of a deadly plague and state-sanctioned racism.

At an uncertain time in her life, Sejal Shah does Burning Man her own way. An excerpt from This Is One Way to Dance, her new memoir in essays.

Scott Korb contemplates disgust — his own, yours — at the kind of magical thinking that promises (with fingers crossed) to protect us from all the causes of dying.

A personal essay in which Ella Dawson learns about the perils of break-up sex the hard way.

Newly single in her mid-50s, Pam Mandel swipes through dozens of selfies, including her own.

In her quest to become truly American, Jakki Kerubo discovers what it means to belong in a place.

After separating from her husband and entering quarantine, Anne Liu Kellor faces her ongoing desire for a partner and the necessity of loving herself.

Shaheen Pasha explores how the trauma of a loved one’s incarceration unravels her carefully planned-out existence, and sets her on a new, unexpected path to find meaning in the meaningless.

The final piece in Elisa Albert’s Albany quartet: Notes on an autumn in search of acceptance in a small city with dangerously lax traffic laws.

“Joi’s recorded performances embodied all the funkiness my little soul had been waiting for.”