Sarah Menkedick reflects on the very different—and complementary—ways in which her mother and her stepmother have nurtured her.
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Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2016: Under-Recognized Stories
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in under-recognized stories.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
Hallowed Ground: Patti Smith on Visiting the Prison of Jean Genet’s Dreams
We were entering a military zone and hit a checkpoint. The driver’s identity card was inspected and after an interminable stretch of silence we were ordered to get out of the car. Two officers searched the front and back seats, finding a switchblade with a broken spring in the glove box. That can’t be so […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Complicated Legacy of Ulrike Meinhof
Forty years ago, the world’s most famous terrorist hanged herself in her prison cell. Williams looks at Meinhof’s complicated legacy, and what it reveals about how radical women are perceived.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Private Prison System for Immigrants
“You build a prison, and then you’ve got to find someone to put in them,” said Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, who has seen five of the 13 Criminal Alien Requirement (CAR) prisons built in his state. “So they widen the net and find additional undocumented folks to fill them up.” Most of the roughly […]
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Twinless in Twinsburg
Anya Groner examines her experience of being an identical twin through the lens of an annual Twins Day festival she attended without her sister.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
The best stories of the week, as chosen by the editors of Longreads.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
A Brief History of Solitary Confinement
Dickens, Tocqueville, and the U.N. all agree about this American invention: It’s torture.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the San Quentin Marathon
One day a year, the men locked up in California’s oldest prison get a shot at glory.
Posted inQuotes
On the Right to Die: John Hofsess’ Secret Assisted Suicide Service
At Toronto Life, John Hofsess posthumously reveals the secret assisted suicide service he offered to eight Canadians — among them the poet Al Purdy — on the day of his own assisted death. The maximum penalty for assisted suicide was 14 years in prison. I was raising the stakes: by giving Al a pre-death sedative, […]
