In this excerpt from The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, host Brendan O’Meara talks to Kelly Loudenberg and Atavist editor-in-chief Seyward Darby about their work on “The Caregivers.”
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Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2022
Longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj read and shared 276 short stories on the #longreads Twitter hashtag in 2021. Here are his favorites.
“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom
“We were interested in dead girls, but so interested in them that we were trying to do the opposite of what had been done before.”
Elizabeth Wurtzel Made it Okay to Write ‘Ouch’
Today’s memoirists and personal essay writers owe a debt of gratitude to the Prozac Nation author for rewriting an inhibiting rule.
Why We Write Memoir: A Reading List
“I have spent innumerable afternoon hours with the essays below, each writer’s words a lifeline pulling me from the deep.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Jane Mayer, Nicholas Thompson, Gabriel Winant, Rachel Lord Elizondo, and Pamela Petro.
‘I Was Being Used in Slivers and Slices’: On Feminism at Odds With Evangelical Faith
“I wasn’t unified in my being. I wasn’t able to bring my whole self to the table,” says Cameron Dezen Hammon about her life as a worship leader for an evangelical megachurch.
The Heart Wing
The muscle that never stops, until the very end. Is your heart a hardworking pump or a mystic miracle?
‘I Was Trapped Forever In This Present Tense’: Carmen Maria Machado on Surviving Abuse
“She was always afraid of my voice. That was the defining factor of our relationship — fear of what I would say and write and do. She’s afraid of … the narrative that I possess.”
Carrying Histories of Protest
Jaquira Díaz witnesses her father’s rebellious fight for a better life, and her homeland’s fight for its place in the world.

