After my internship, my first assignment for National Geographic was a story about the Zinacenteco Indians in the highlands of Chiapas. The subject was interesting but very challenging. As a woman, my access was mostly limited to other women who only spoke the Maya language I was struggling to learn. Once I traversed the language barrier, it […]
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Posted inBooks, First Chapters, Nonfiction, Story
Falling in Love with Words: The Secret Life of a Lexicographer
Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper describes how she fell in love with words and offers a peek into the complex process of making dictionaries.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Jenny Diski: 1947-2016
Jenny Diski died this morning at the age of 68. Here are nine stories celebrating Diski and her work.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
In China, Searching for Mysterious Gaps in the Family Tree
China’s revolution made it difficult for Chinese abroad to stay in contact with their families. Now many in the diaspora are searching for their roots.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
Against Confession: On Intersectional Feminism, Radical Catholicism, and Redefining Remorse
Laura Goode investigates her Catholic identity—the radical, feminist, social-justice-oriented version she discovered upon encountering the mysteries of marriage and motherhood—years after her departure from the guilt-stricken, conservative Catholicism of her upbringing.
Posted inNonfiction
Xenu’s Paradox: The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard and the Making of Scientology
Alec Nevala-Lee, author of Astounding, a forthcoming book on the history of science fiction, digs into the writing career of L. Ron Hubbard, gaining new insights into the life of the controversial founder of dianetics and the origins and nature of Scientology itself.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Writing Our America
“Despite the headlines that came after the election calling this country ‘Trump’s America’—and there were many—I won’t call it that, or see it that way. And regardless of your politics I’ll ask you to join me. This is our America. It’s our America to write in, and our America to write.”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Jenny Diski: 1947-2016
Jenny Diski died this morning at the age of 68. Here are nine stories celebrating Diski and her work.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Quotes
Into the Woods…With Mom’s Cookies: Kathryn Schulz on the Problem with Thoreau
Only by elastic measures can “Walden” be regarded as nonfiction. Read charitably, it is a kind of semi-fictional extended meditation featuring a character named Henry David Thoreau. Read less charitably, it is akin to those recent best-selling memoirs whose authors turn out to have fabricated large portions of their stories. It is widely acknowledged that, […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
What It’s Like To Be a Teenager in the NBA
We often hear about the rise and fall of child stars, but Hollywood isn’t the only industry investing time and money into teenagers. League rules prohibit players from joining the NBA directly after high school, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of young prospects who enter the high-stakes world of professional basketball at 18 […]
