In 2002, developers made a deal with the people of Elwood, Illinois: they’d bring high-paying jobs in the growing warehousing and logistics industry to the centrally-located town in exchange for two decades of tax abatement. Seventeen years later, temp agencies in the region are flourishing, but full-time jobs are few and far between. Meanwhile, tens of […]
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Posted inProfiles & Interviews
Longreads Best of 2019: Profiles
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in profiles.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Story
Waiting for Alice
Nick and Nora had Asta. Why can’t we have Alice?
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
The Beautiful Politics of the Backyard Barter System
“My farm connects me to the world, the ground, its air, its water, its fauna, and people. In an introvert-kind-of-way. Which is to say, my-kind-of-way.”
Posted inNonfiction
Fire Sale: Finance and Fascism in the Amazon Rainforest
From global capital to YouTube, carbon credits to indigenous land defenders in their own words, Will Meyer has compiled a reading list on who lit the match and how the fire might be stopped.
Posted inNonfiction
Grandiose and Claustrophobic: ‘Prozac Nation’ Turns 25
Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestseller is deeply rooted in a specific, Gen-X cultural moment. Can it still speak to us in 2019?
Posted inNonfiction
The 19th Century Lesbian Made for 21st Century Consumption
Jeanna Kadlec considers Anne Lister, the historical figure at the center of HBO’s Gentleman Jack, and the influence of other queer women who preceded her.
Posted inNonfiction
Unearthing the Story: An Interview with Peter Hessler
The New Yorker writer describes his career’s circuitous route, from his start as a struggling fiction writer to becoming a China correspondent, and now the author of a new book about the Arab Spring.
Posted inNonfiction
On Vanishing
Dementia is a kind of erasure, a death before death, where the living discount the infirmed long before they’re gone.
Posted inArts & Culture, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Shelved: Jeff Buckley’s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
The posthumous Buckley industry began with this problematic album, proof that the people who control a musician’s estate don’t always have his music in mind.
