Magen David and Me

A personal essay in which, after facing persecution in the former Soviet Union and a new wave of antisemitism in the United States, Marya Zilberberg decides to put her Jewishness on display.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 15, 2019
Length: 15 minutes (3,886 words)

You’re Just Too Good to Be True

In this personal essay, Kavita Das writes about her childhood infatuation, young adult disillusionment, and later-in-life acceptance of Englebert Humperdink.

Author: Kavita Das
Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 14, 2019
Length: 26 minutes (6,688 words)

O, Small-Bany! Part 3: Winter

The third installment of Elisa Albert’s seasonal quartet of essays about life in a small upstate, New York town.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 7, 2019
Length: 17 minutes (4,343 words)

Every Day I Write the Book

In this personal essay, at 63, Michael Musto reveals how he keeps managing to add new chapters to the consistently unfolding story of his career.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 5, 2019
Length: 8 minutes (2,035 words)

A Second Passport

In this personal essay, instead of returning home after a trip to Israel like most Birthright tourists do, Pam Mandel goes on to Egypt, and beyond.

Author: Pam Mandel
Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 1, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,605 words)

Elegy in Times Square

A personal essay in which Lily Burana, a former teenage peep show girl, looks back on a queer love story that began in New York’s notorious red-light district.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 28, 2019
Length: 7 minutes (1,880 words)

What Falls to Earth

In this personal essay, grieving the mysterious death of her father, Susanna Space seeks refuge in the study of meteors.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 25, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,200 words)

Traveling While Black Across the Atlantic Ocean

In this personal essay, following in the footsteps of African Americans traveling to Denmark in the early 20th century, Ethelene Whitmire experiences a 21st century transatlantic crossing.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 22, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,642 words)

Of Blackness and “Beauty”

At an art exhibit exploring black models through Western art, Morgan Jerkins finds historical evidence of the white supremacist definitions of beauty Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom identifies in Thick: and Other Essays.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 16, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,731 words)

At Risk, at Home and Abroad

As Joy Notoma grapples with uterine fibroids, harmful biases in the medical establishment, and a move from Brooklyn to West Africa she wonders where, as a black woman, she can find safety.

Author: Joy Notoma
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 14, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,079 words)