Diary of a Do-Gooder

In this personal essay, after years of trying to distinguish herself, Sara Eckel considers the value of door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, and other anonymous tasks of everyday activism.

Author: Sara Eckel
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 19, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,774 words)

Determined to Hitch a Ride on the Greatest Rig in America

An excerpt of The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica, about Billy Gawronski, a 17-year-old who was hell-bent on stowing away to Antarctica on Richard Evelyn Byrd’s 1928 expedition.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 16, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,951 words)

We’re Not Done Here

How the MeToo movement became a feminist sexual revolution.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 18, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,764 words)

The Encyclopedia of the Missing

She keeps watch over one of the largest databases of missing persons in the country. For Meaghan Good, the disappeared are still out here, you just have to know where to look.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 11, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,160 words)

Changing My Mind About Pig’s Feet and Cornrows

In this personal essay, Dara Lurie reflects on what she discovered about her own racism while living for ten months at a state-run home for disadvantaged children.

Author: Dara Lurie
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 15, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,011 words)

You Are What You Hear

A personal essay in which Pauline Campos writes about trying to forget the harsh words she heard about her body as a child, and to avoid passing along her body shame to her young daughter.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 12, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,469 words)

Dance Me to the End of Love

In this personal essay, Abigail Rasminsky looks back on the youthful days she trained to become a professional dancer — and the injury that put an end to her dreams.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 8, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,983 words)

What to Do With a Man Who Has a Story, and a Gun

In a personal essay about the naivete of young love, Lisa Romeo recalls her first college romance, when she was willing to overlook a lot — until she wasn’t.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 4, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,767 words)

My Daughter Died, But I’m Still Mothering Her

In this personal essay, Jacqueline Dooley recalls her difficult transition from being a mother with earthly duties, to becoming one with more spiritual concerns for a teenage daughter with terminal cancer.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 2, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,067 words)

The Other People in Springfield

A personal essay in which Imran Siddiquee considers how his identities — as a Bangladeshi-American and as a man — were shaped by growing up in the shadow of The Simpsons.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 29, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,638 words)