Music has been a salve this year, helping us cope with the myriad challenges that 2020 brought. Here are some favorite pieces of music writing we picked in 2020.
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Posted inNonfiction
The Curious Tale of the Salish Sea Feet
To date, 21 disembodied feet have washed up on the shores of Seattle’s Salish Sea. What at first looked like the work of a serial killer turned out to be something even more unsettling: A message from the ocean about who we are.
Posted inNonfiction
Mountains, Transcending
“Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
Best of 2019
The Best of 2019 series is made up of guest-curated collections across food, sports, music, investigative reporting, science & nature, and other categories. Contributing writers and editors to these lists include Deborah Blum, Pamela Colloff, Danielle A. Jackson, Morgan Jerkins, Emily Raboteau, Sam Riches, Helen Rosner, Matthew Salesses, Mayukh Sen, Michael W. Twitty, and more.
Posted inEssays & Criticism
Becoming Family
Jennifer Berney explores how queer families challenge traditional notions of heredity and paternity.
Posted inArts & Culture, Science & Nature, Story
Critics: Endgame
If there’s no earth, there’s no art. How do you engage in cultural criticism at the end of the world?
Posted inNonfiction
My Body Is Not a Temple
All the good habits and self-optimization in the world don’t give you real control over your body. Back away from the bread starter.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
Pam Houston on Coming Clean, Climate Change, and ‘Writing Deeply Into the Grasses’
Pam Houston’s new memoir is an ode to her beloved ranch, but also deals directly with the harrowing moments of childhood abuse that her fictional characters have been living through for years.
Posted inNonfiction
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare
In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
Posted inHighlight, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
‘Someone Took Care to Get it Right’: The Birds of the Seven Kingdoms
On the delightfully nerdy role of birds and bird calls in Game of Thrones.
