Fandom gets at our most human urges: to share the things we love with others, to seek community among like-minded peers, especially at a time when we are all still too far apart.
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Best Of 2023: Features
At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
Meet the Obsessive Role-Players Who Live Inside the World of Grand Theft Auto
“Renegade developers co-opted this controversial video game’s source code to build a complex alternate universe where breaking character is the cardinal sin. Millions tune in to watch.”
Best of 2022: Reader Favorites
You’ve heard from the Longreads’ editors, now it’s the turn of our readers.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Christopher Johnston and Erin Quinlan, Dan McQuade, Crystal Wilkinson, Simon Akam, and Nicholson Baker.
30 Years Later: Phyllis Hyman, “I Refuse to Be Lonely”
The singer’s first posthumous album deserves to be remembered as the bravest of her career.
40 Days in a Jungle and Our Top 5
“The skies were blue that day, and there was a light wind. For around half an hour all was well. But as the Cessna approached Caquetá, a Colombian department that contains one of the densest, wettest, most remote corners of the Amazon, something went wrong.” Pat yourselves on the back: you’ve made it through January. […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Lizzie Presser, Greg Jaffe, Phillip Picardi, Amy Yee, and Paul Brown.
Architecture and Blackberries: The Art of Longform Narratives
As host of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, Brendan O’Meara is no stranger to talking about the art and craft of storytelling. In this craft-focused excerpt, we’re digging into Episode 340, in which he interviewed Atavist editor Jonah Ogles and freelance writer J.B. MacKinnon about his work on the latest issue of The Atavist. The seduction […]
Anatomy of the Mask: A Reading List on Superhero Comics
The adventures of superheroes reveal a lot about the people who created them — and the marginalized communities they represent.


