The following is from Rachael Maddux, who wrote about contemplating the idea of death and mortality at a young age. Maddux wrote this essay for The Paris Review last June: For almost as long as I’ve been alive I have known that I am going to die. This awareness came to me when I was […]
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Eudora Welty on Moving from Writer to Reader
What her 1972 Paris Review interview reveals about her approach to the craft.
This Is Living
How burdens and values pass from fathers to sons, and the search for that one true thing.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. * * * 1. The Day I Started Lying to Ruth Peter B. Bach | New York Magazine | May 6, 2014 | 24 minutes (6,012 […]
David Cronenberg on Transformation
Stories of magical transformations have always been part of humanity’s narrative canon. They articulate that universal sense of empathy for all life forms that we feel; they express that desire for transcendence that every religion also expresses; they prompt us to wonder if transformation into another living creature would be a proof of the possibility […]
Longreads Member Pick: ‘A Semester with Allen Ginsberg,’ by Elissa Schappell
This week we’re excited to feature Elissa Schappell‘s essay, “The Craft of Poetry: A Semester with Allen Ginsberg,” as our Longreads Member Pick. Her recollections are an intimate window into the Beat legend. The piece originally appeared in the Summer 1995 issue of the Paris Review and was later anthologized in their 1999 collection Beat […]
Reading List: Amazing People for Desperate Times
Emily Perper is a word-writing human working at a small publishing company. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. I have a group of comedian friends; we go bowling every Wednesday and contribute to a magazine called The Annual. In the wake of recent personal misfortune, they’ve been a refuge for me. After […]
Casey N. Cep on Ariel Levy’s ‘Thanksgiving in Mongolia’
“The essay is remarkable from its opening memories of Levy’s own childhood to its heartbreaking ending.”
Longreads Member Pick: 'A Semester with Allen Ginsberg,' by Elissa Schappell
This week we’re excited to feature Elissa Schappell‘s essay, “The Craft of Poetry: A Semester with Allen Ginsberg,” as our Longreads Member Pick. Her recollections are an intimate window into the Beat legend. The piece originally appeared in the Summer 1995 issue of the Paris Review and was later anthologized in their 1999 collection Beat […]
Reading List: Amazing People for Desperate Times
Emily Perper is a word-writing human working at a small publishing company. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker. I have a group of comedian friends; we go bowling every Wednesday and contribute to a magazine called The Annual. In the wake of recent personal misfortune, they’ve been a refuge for me. After […]

