Mark MacKinnon tells the story of Naief Abazid — who, at the urging of some older boys, graffitied a school wall on a lark in Daraa, Syria, at age 14. The “writing on the wall” enraged Syria’s Baathist dictatorship, and became the source of ignition in the Syrian war.
Search results
Posted inNonfiction
Conversations with My Loveliest
Melissa Berman recalls what was said, and not said, between her and her beloved aunt as they approached her final year.
Posted inNonfiction
How the Cosby Story Finally Went Viral — And Why It Took So Long
A journalist who reported on the accusations long before they went viral wonders, “What kind of profession am I in, where stories have no logical reason for unfolding?”
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
On Not Being Able to Read
In law school, they told me I wouldn’t be able to read anymore. That the pleasure of the text, like a lover in a non-law degree, would slowly grow opaque to me.
Posted inNonfiction
Leaving a Good Man Is Hard To Do
When women end relationships, it seems like the emotion we most acutely feel is the guilt of having pushed it away.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Read and Destroy
Karen Durrie was ten years old when her mother’s boyfriend began to molest her. At the Globe and Mail, Durrie examines the years of abuse and the fear, shame, and feelings of complicity that not only kept her silent, but encouraged her to correspond with her attacker.
Posted inNonfiction
Other Rachel Lyons
Having a fairly common name gives Rachel Lyon occasional glimpses into the lives of her doppelgangers — and the roads she has not taken.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
There Is No Other Way To Say This
“Tell them on the outside,” Carolyn Forché’s Salvadoran mentor instructed her. Her memoir is her latest attempt. Its elliptical lyricism, like that of her poetry, runs circles around censorship.
Posted inNonfiction
Uncertain Ground
Grace Loh Prasad realizes that mourning is complicated when home and homeland aren’t the same place.
Posted inNonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
‘They Would Try to Love Whoever Killed Her, and Forgive.’
In 1985, a girl was abducted and left to die in Winnipeg’s severe cold. While her parents, Cliff and Wilma Derksen, did not yet know the killer’s identity, they made a decision to forgive.
