Forgetting the Madeleine
A pastry chef reflects on taste, memory, and literature’s most famous confection.
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.
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.
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.
Chasing Drinks with Lies, and Lies with Drinks
In this personal essay, Katie MacBride recalls her last days abusing alcohol before getting sober.
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.
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.
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.
To Hug, Or Not to Hug
In this personal essay, Emily Meg Weinstein considers the complexities of meeting and greeting in this #MeToo moment.
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.