The Twisted Saga of Jailhouse Boxer James Scott’s Battle for Redemption: Prison inmate No. 57735, accused of murder and serving a 30-40 year stretch inside Rahway State Prison for armed robbery, introduced himself in a letter to reporter Beth Schenerman at The New York Times on Dec. 17, 1978, writing, in a rare moment of […]
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Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Slavery and Freedom in New York City
The story of slavery in New York, the messy path to abolition, and a shameful history with which America has yet to come to terms.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Reading List
Tony Judt’s Life with ALS: A Reading List
The Ice Bucket challenge raised millions for ALS research, not to mention awareness about the disease: the motor neuron disorder, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects thousands of Americans. It’s also served as a reminder about the work that Tony Judt did to convey what it was like to live with ALS, in his […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the Kafkaesque World of the US’s “Little Guantánamos”
Communication Management Units, or CMUs, are cloaked in secrecy. They segregate prisoners accused of terrorism, stripped of rights and held in isolation: We sat together on her couch, her small, eight-year-old hands clutching a photo of her father, Yassin Aref. “My daddy only held me twice before I was five,” Dilnia told me. For the […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
The Answer Is Never
Rewriting the false narrative of childlessness.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction, Story
Budd & Leni
The story of Hollywood screenwriter Budd Schulberg’s unlikely collaboration with Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction, Story
Untangling the Knot: My Search for Democracy in the Modern Family
Sabine Heinlein grew up in a family where everyone was treated as equals. It didn’t work out like they hoped.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction, Story
The Peacemaker: A New Story by Eva Holland and Pacific Standard
For our latest Longreads Member Pick, we’re excited to share early access to a new story by journalist Eva Holland, to be published next week by Pacific Standard. “The Peacemaker” tells the story of Schaeffer Cox, the 30-year-old activist and founder of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia who was sentenced last year to 26 years in […]
Posted inUncategorized
What It's Like to Be in Solitary Confinement
“I place a stack of 18 postcards in front of me and write on each of them a question that has been on my mind since I left Pelican Bay: ‘Do you think prolonged SHU confinement is torture?’ I send them to prisoners across the state and 14 write back, all with the same answer: […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
Longreads Best of 2014: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year
All through December, we’ll be featuring Longreads’ Best of 2014. To get you ready, here’s a list of every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email. If you like these, you can sign up to receive our free weekly email every Friday. * * * I Smoked Pot with […]
