“Jeanine Cummins can write about Mexico — but she will be judged on whether her writing actually captures the experiential and emotional and ethical complexity of that place, and she will be judged with extra care because she is an outsider.”
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Posted inNonfiction
Finding My Father
At age thirty-two, after years working as an exotic dancer, the daughter of a mysteriously absentee father finally puts together the pieces that had been missing her whole life.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Story
‘I’m a Big Fan of Writing To Find Out What You Don’t Know.’
Mark Haber discusses “Reinhardt’s Garden” and its protagonist’s quest for a true understanding of melancholy: “not a feeling but a mood, not a color but a shade, not depression but not happiness either…”
Posted inArts & Culture
Longreads Best of 2019: Music Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in music writing.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Guy Gunaratne on the ‘Push-Pull of Ancestry and Meaning’ in London
Guy Gunaratne’s Man Booker-longlisted “In Our Mad and Furious City” recognizes multiple, overlapping versions of London and its inhabitants, examining the ways violence can bubble up through the city’s fissures.
Posted inArts & Culture, Blog Post, Culture, Current Events, Highlight, Profiles & Interviews, Reading List
A Kendrick Lamar Syllabus
The Pulitzer Prize-winner’s work always feels honest, as writers have found when they dive deep into his literary influences.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2019: Food Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in food writing.
Posted inBooks, Reading List
The Tender, Wild Realm of Children’s Literature: A Reading List
The plot of the book came to me as I was falling asleep: two girls share a bedroom, and squabble until they have no choice but to divide their room in half. Only one girl has access to the bedroom door. The other has the closet, which turns out to be an elevator. Suddenly, I was […]
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘In a Marriage, You Grow Around Each Other’: An Interview with Tessa Hadley
Tessa Hadley on gaining the sense of authority she needed to write fiction, the authors whose work opens the door for her to write, and the way we are formed by our connections with other people.
Posted inStory
Telling Stories In Order to Live: On Writing and Money
Sarah Menkedick examines the perils inherent in trying to earn a living as a full-time writer.
