Posted inUncategorized

A sportswriter tries his hand at singing the national anthem at a baseball game: The anthem is designed to humble you. The anthem is designed to ruin your shit if you get too haughty, and that’s a good thing. In fact, it’s ready to challenge you from the very beginning: O say can you see […]

Posted inUncategorized

A first-person account of an Olympic career, a violent attack, and what happened next: My coach calls me up and says, ‘Listen, If you want to keep your scholarship’—by the way, he’s totally devious here —he said, ‘If you want your scholarship, all you have to do is show up for the meets. Don’t do […]

Posted inUncategorized

The Top 10 Longreads of 2012

About This List Thanks to everyone who has participated in the Longreads community this year, and to all of our guests who shared their favorite stories of 2012. The below list represents our editors’ favorite stories of the year, for both nonfiction and fiction. Longreads is edited by Mark Armstrong and Mike Dang, with Kjell Reigstad, […]

Posted inUncategorized

Longreads Best of 2012: Howard Riefs

Howard Riefs is a prolific Longreader and a communications consultant in Chicago.   Best Series This Land, Dan Barry, The New York Times    “The dateline is Elyria, Ohio, a city of 55,000 about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland. You know this town, even if you have never been here. A place buffeted by time and the economy, a place […]

Gift this article