“She nearly died while fighting a fire. All she could think about was the tragedy of dying while still a virgin.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
One Man’s Quest to Transform the West Texas Desert
“An urban dweller ventures to far West Texas with a dream to transform a barren desert into a lush forest.”
Posted inNewsletter
The Food of America and Our Top 5
As Thanksgiving and gluttony approach, I’ve been thinking about what foods represent America and how eating can shape a sense of identity—a theme past Longreads writers have been drawn to.
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we feature stories from Tom Scocca, Giles Harvey, Chris Walker, Krithika Varagur, and N.C. Happe.
Posted inUncategorized
A Year in Reading and Our Top 5
“Some of my favorite stories this year have made me more open to new outlooks and solutions for restoring and supporting the earth. They challenge me to pay more attention to the natural world, and to remember that we’re all connected, even to the tiniest and simplest forms of life.” “One observation on its own […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Conjuring Love: A Conversation with Kiese Laymon
“The same ingredients are a part of all of us. They’re just shaped and distributed differently.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
“Diana’s Piano” And All The Cats I’ve Loved And Lost
“The years I’ve spent with these cats—with Detective in our house, with Walker in a small apartment, with Mango on the porch next door—is worth all the feelings of loss.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Eat, Prey, Love: A Day with the Squirrel Hawkers of East Texas
“Of all the red-tailed hawks that have ever soared on a Texas breeze, only one gets to live in Charlie Alvis’s house, at least during the winter hunting season. ‘My bird has its own bedroom,’ said Alvis, a falconer who’s based in the unincorporated community of Porter, just beyond the northern outskirts of Houston.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Survives
“It’s normal to want to repair what’s broken, folly to repair what breaks us and keeps on breaking.”
Posted inUncategorized
The Enduring Joy of Maps (and the Week’s Top 5)
“Empty spaces on maps were so terrifying to ancient mapmakers that they filled them with decorations, fictional landscapes, and monsters. We moderns miss the beautiful monsters, but what if they never actually disappeared? What if the monsters were always part of the map, part of mapping itself?” After many months of hearing about how great […]
