I don’t think I was the only one who had trouble holding it together. We had come all this way and cashed in so much good fortune for the outside chance that we might see those eight Emperor penguins pick their way across the ice. And we did. In a world that can seem purpose-built […]
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Longreads Best of 2015: Under-Recognized Stories
Stories that deserved more attention in 2015.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week, featuring, Cincinnati magazine, The New Yorker, 5280 Magazine, Orion, and the Washingtonian.
Interview: Vela Magazine Founder Sarah Menkedick on Women Writers and Sustainable Publishing
An Q&A with Sarah Menkedick.
Gay Talese and ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’
Gay Talese’s classic 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra with annotations from the author: “The room cracked with the clack of billiard balls. There were about a dozen spectators in the room, most of them young men who were watching Leo Durocher shoot against two other aspiring hustlers who were not very good. This private drinking […]
When 772 Pitches Isn’t Enough
Via Travelreads: Chris Jones on the unique culture of Japanese baseball and 16-year-old pitching phenom Tomohiro Anraku, seen as “a real-life Sidd Finch, his story so impossible that he’s been spoken about only in whispers or exclamations”: “There has been talk in America that Anraku’s arm had been destroyed weeks earlier, in April, stripped of […]
Not All Smurfs and Sunshine: Profile of Esquire’s Chris Jones
“I wanted to do right by Joey,” Chris Jones now says of “The Things That Carried Him” which Esquire published in May 2008. In 17,000 words, he told the story of one soldier’s return home, structured backward from his funeral to the moment an IED broke his body. He sprinkled details—a girl in a flowered […]
Longreads Best of 2012: Esquire's Chris Jones
Chris Jones is a writer for Esquire and ESPN and the winner of two National Magazine Awards. Favorite new writer discovery of 2012 I’m always scared of making lists like this, because a year is a long time, and I read a lot, and invariably I’ll forget writers and pieces that I liked very much. […]
Longreads Best of 2012: Emily M. Keeler
Emily M. Keeler is a writer and the founding editor of Little Brother Magazine. Best Pair of Essays on Loneliness Emily Cooke, “The Lonely Ones” – The New Inquiry Susan Sontag is a force that continues to be reckoned with, and the publication of her second volume of journals this year occasioned this incredible piece. […]
Longreads Best of 2012: Nicholas Jackson
Nicholas Jackson is the digital editorial director for Outside magazine. A former associate editor at The Atlantic, he has also worked for Slate,Texas Monthly, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and other publications. Best Argument for the Magazine”The Innocent Man, Part One” (Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly)”The Innocent Man, Part Two” (Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly) I was going to give this two-parter from the always-great Pamela Colloff […]

