An essay by Courtney Desiree Morris on Louisiana, her grandmother, drugs, feeling alive, and finding one’s queer tribe. I roll my hips like the Mississippi, joints loose and easy, feeling light and free. I cannot remember the last time I felt this way. That makes me sad. I accept this insight and let it go […]
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Emergence
“If those who came before us could inhabit uninhabitable territory, making homes in a no man’s land, then we, by way and by will, can survive anything.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending excellent stories from Lewis Hyde, Reeves Wiedeman, Sam Myers, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David W. Brown.
Our Most-Read Longreads Originals of 2023
The 10 top-performing essays published on Longreads this year.
Me and You
Two friends, Hurricane Katrina, a suicide, and the pain and beauty that holds us all together.
A New Series, An Unknown History, and the Week’s top 5
“Minstrelsy shows you one hand, convinces you of one thing—the thing you can see most vividly—while something else works behind the scenes. That something is something only those who are tapped into a specific kind of pain, a specific kind of quest for freedom that has failed before but is not worth abandoning, might understand.” […]
What the Journey Brings, and Our Weekly Top 5
“I-95 is an artery of ambition, movement, and flight. A place where millions of people hurry toward love and loss, carrying their hope, their grief, their ordinary Tuesdays, all at 70 miles per hour.” A favorite program of mine is Race Across the World. The concept is simple: Teams must cross entire countries without flying, armed only […]
This Week: Rituals, Emoji, and a Cold Case
“Ritual is an urge and an act; it’s an aesthetic gesture. As an adult I established the habit of turning my attention to those subtle seasonal details and recording them. I was loving and honoring the land, but this practice still left something undone. A certain clarity, maybe formality. Something like a frame around a […]
Weighing Big Tech’s Promise to Black America
“Floyd’s killing sparked widespread protests in the streets and calls for racial justice in Fortune 500 boardrooms. But while corporate America’s official responses often felt like crisis PR disguised as philanthropy, Netflix’s approach stood out.”
Highway Star
“Jess told me later that it was rare to see her model of truck with a set forward axle, which helps pull heavy loads. ‘It’s a unicorn truck,’ she said, grinning.”


