Forgetting the Madeleine

A pastry chef reflects on taste, memory, and literature’s most famous confection.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 3, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,315 words)

How To Be a Plain Girl

Lolly Bowean writes that every black woman has a hair biography. Hers includes an aunt with “growing hands,” a cousin who straightened her hair against her mother’s wishes, and a disastrous teenage Jheri curl. Eventually, she comes to realize that for black women, finding the right hairstyle isn’t about looking like everyone else — it’s about looking like yourself.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 2, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,414 words)

Searching for a Future Beyond Facebook

If we want to liberate ourselves from the tech monopolies, we have to figure out what to do with our data.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 1, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,206 words)

The Forever Nomad

A personal essay. For an immigrant, losing a home is a given, but Margarita Gokun Silver wonders if never finding one again is also part of the journey.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 30, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,386 words)

Chasing Drinks with Lies, and Lies with Drinks

In this personal essay, Katie MacBride recalls her last days abusing alcohol before getting sober.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 27, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,641 words)

Finding the Soundtrack to My Desert Life

A personal and critical essay in which Aaron Gilbreath recalls discovering the music of Friends of Dean Martinez in the ’90s, and the ways in which it helped him to appreciate life in his native Arizona.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 25, 2018
Length: 30 minutes (7,571 words)

The Apology Tour

A personal essay in which writer Jonny Auping tracks down people he’s wronged in the past to say he’s sorry.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 23, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,043 words)

Earning Our Place on the Planet: An Interview with adrienne maree brown

Her planet/self-help guide for activists, “Emergent Strategy,” is going mainstream — maybe even in time to save the world.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 24, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,237 words)

To Hug, Or Not to Hug

In this personal essay, Emily Meg Weinstein considers the complexities of meeting and greeting in this #MeToo moment.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 20, 2018
Length: 14 minutes (3,682 words)

The Changeling

A personal essay in which How to Write an Autobiographical Novel author Alexander Chee considers how answering the question, “What are you?” turned him into a writer.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 17, 2018
Length: 15 minutes (3,921 words)