It’s always the same: a morning arrives in November, and my friend, as though officially inaugurating the Christmas time of year that exhilarates her imagination and fuels the blaze of her heart, announces: “It’s fruitcake weather! Fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat.” “A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote ’Tis the season! A time for awkwardly posed […]
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An Elegy for DNAinfo, Local Media’s First Responders
We were the watchdogs, showing up when no one else did.
Not Quite Not White
Sharmila Sen grew up understanding distinctions between castes and religions, between the educated and the illiterate. Race was a distinction she didn’t understand until she came to America.
Every Woman Her Own Bodyguard
Before women got the right to vote, they learned jiu-jitsu and boxing to defend themselves on the streets
Longreads Best of 2017: Under-Recognized Stories
Here are the best stories we thought deserved more attention this year.
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: America’s Secret Weapon in World War II
How “know-nothings” Elizebeth Smith Friedman and William F. Friedman became the greatest codebreakers of their era.
An Interview with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Viet Thanh Nguyen
2017 MacArthur fellow Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses questions of justice, diversity in literature, and empathy across cultures.
‘Let’s Suck This Week Less Than We Did Last Week’: An Oral History of The Stranger
Twenty-five years after its debut, here is the story of an independent newspaper in Seattle that spawned Dan Savage and won a Pulitzer Prize.
Why Quotas Still Don’t Work for Journalism
Quotas allow superiors to blame failure on subordinates and take credit for success.
A Heart-Shaped Life: Twelve Ways of Looking at Amy Krouse Rosenthal
The author, speaker, and performance artist was far more than her final, heartbreaking Modern Love column.

