Longreads

Maureen Stanton contemplates her history of crying in inappropriate moments, and considers tears from gender-based and political perspectives.

Envy over her success led her husband, also a writer, to become violent. She fights every day for her safety — and to avoid being relegated to obscurity like so many writers who are mothers.

After leaving fundamentalism, Eve Ettinger grapples with the loaded theological heritage of evangelical personal finance teachings.

As a teen, Laura Bond went all out to meet Depeche Mode — and to hang onto her best friend.

Deena ElGenaidi considers the ways in which adoring Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine from afar in her teens and early 20s provided a safe outlet for expressing desire.

Nicole Walker contemplates the nature of migration, and realizes there are two places you can never escape: the planet and your own head.

Tega Oghenechovwen contemplates the ways in which acute childhood trauma can infect and compromise relationships later in life.

Wendy McClure recounts how an old audio tape of holiday music becomes a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.

Working the night shift on an intensive care unit, Suzanne Ohlmann brushes up against death, Jesus, and her biological father.