27 must-read stories on the making of the world’s greatest magazines.
Search results
Posted inNonfiction, Story
A Magazine’s Assignment: Find Someone ‘Ugly’
“When you get a phone call from your editor telling you he wants an in-depth profile of an ugly guy, you panic a little.”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle and Readmill users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. 1. This Old Man Roger Angell | The New Yorker | February 17, 2014 | 20 minutes (5,062 words) On life as a nonagenarian: […]
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews
How to Write About Tax Havens and the Super-Rich: An Interview with Nicholas Shaxson
Last year Shaxson published a Vanity Fair article, “A Tale of Two Londons,” that described the residents of one of London’s most exclusive addresses—One Hyde Park—and the accounting acrobatics they had performed to get there.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2013: Here Is What Happens After You Write a New York Times Story About Lindsay Lohan
Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie Stephen Rodrick | New York Times Magazine | January 2013 | 31 minutes (7,752 words) Stephen Rodrick (@stephenrodrick) is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, contributing editor for Men’s Journal and author of The Magical Stranger.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A 1,000-Year History of Laughing Games
At Pacific Standard, Sam Riches goes to the Canadian competitive laughing championship in Toronto, where “laughletes” compete in laughter challenges like “the Diabolical Laugh” and “the Alabama Knee-Slapper” to win a title and trophy. Read more about competitions.
Posted inUncategorized
“All this infrastructure was forced underground not through some grand plan that can easily be sorted out but rather through two centuries of competition and compromise as the value of New York’s surface space increased and the streets grew more crowded. Taken as a whole, underground New York is an incoherent three-dimensional space that defies simple […]
Posted inUncategorized
Building a Car from Scratch
“Kevin turned serious for a moment and admitted that, yes, he was ‘paranoid’ about something breaking. It wasn’t just the welds. Much of the car was made from used parts that Kevin and his friends had scavenged from local junkyards. The rear suspension came from a Dodge Neon. The struts were a combination of Nissan, […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Searching For Anything But Bobby Fischer At School Scrabble Nationals
The writer visits the 2013 National School Scrabble Championship, a competition between children in the fourth through eighth grade: “The two boys have a laugh at my complaints. Frankly, I’m in a no-win situation. If I lose, I’m a loser. If I win, I’m the heartless bastard who beat two middle schoolers. Sam’s mother agrees […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Things They Carried: At The National Wife-Carrying Championships
A writer and his wife participate in a centuries-old Scandinavian tradition known as “Wife-Carrying,” a sport where male competitors carry a female teammate while racing through an obstacle course: “And then my wife and I are 15 yards up the hill, and I am breathing hard, making it work. This isn’t so bad, I think. […]
