We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in essays and criticism.
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
When Your Name Precedes You: Jeannie Vanasco On Feeling Bound to the Dead Older Sibling She’s Named For
“I was sixteen, the age Jeanne would always be.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The ’90s Soda that Nobody Cared About Until It Was Dead
Writing for The Believer in February, 2014, Michael Schulman explored one of the most dramatic and memorable failures in American branding: Coca-Cola’s OK Soda. Marketed to Gen X’ers in 1994, the OK Soda brand died by 1995, though its artifacts live on in collector circles and advertising lore.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Story, Writing
Meet the New Mormons
Is it possible to be queer, lefty, and a Latter-Day Saint? After leaving the church, Sarah Scoles sets out to understand liberal Mormons.
Posted inBooks, History, Story
Nell Battle Lewis, Storyteller for Jim Crow
How an otherwise high-minded social reformer preserved and perpetuated her white supremacist worldview.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Follow the Oil Trail and You’ll Find the Girls
A filmmaker travels the U.S. and Canada to speak with Indigenous women about the constant threats to their safety and their lives.
Posted inUncategorized
The Intimacy of an Android: An Interview With Alex Mar
In her Wired cover story, Mar explores the desire to turn to a robot for comfort or companionship.
Posted inNonfiction
It Isn’t That Shocking
Popular culture likes to depict electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as sinister and dangerous. Leslie Kendall Dye reflects on the myths surrounding the treatment that saved her life.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
It Isn’t That Shocking
Popular culture likes to depict electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as sinister and dangerous. Leslie Kendall Dye reflects on the myths surrounding the treatment that saved her life.
Posted inCurrent Events, Nonfiction, Standout, Story
Bundyville Chapter One: A War in the Desert
Cliven Bundy and his sons led two armed standoffs against the federal government and beat them twice in court. The Bundys and their supporters see themselves as Patriots fighting government overreach. Others see them as domestic terrorists rallying extremists and conspiracy theorists to their side. What is the truth?
