Nic and his father David Sheff’s memoirs about grappling with Nic’s addiction are the basis for the new movie ‘Beautiful Boy.’ It was important to them that the movie communicate what addiction really is — an illness.
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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 inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Hiking With Nietzsche
An infirmed Friedrich Nietzsche hiked the Swiss Alps to work on his writing. Philosopher John Kaag followed Nietzsche’s trail, taking the great thinker’s ideas out of his books and into the world.
Posted inNonfiction
Family Animals
In an excerpt from her new memoir, Grace Talusan fondly remembers the badly behaved dog that won her skeptical father’s heart.
Posted inUncategorized
How to Pitch Personal Essays to Longreads: An Updated Guide
New submissions guidelines, plus information about our new essay series.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Father of Disorder
One woman finds insight into her father’s rage in the scientific concept of entropy.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
“There’s an idea that laborers end up in their role because it’s all they’re suited for. What put us there, though, was birth, family history — not lack of talent for something else.”
Posted inNonfiction
Truly Seeing the River: An Interview with Writer Boyce Upholt
Writing about the culture and beauty of the Mississippi Delta requires seeing the mighty river as more than a line of water.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Greeter
At age sixteen, the daughter of a wealthy Florida couple with chemical dependencies found herself facing her uncertain future, tangled in a web of trauma, self-harm, sexual objectification, and leaning on her tight relationships with other young women. This essay is part of the author’s forthcoming memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story, Uncategorized
Fear of Suffering Alone
After separating from her husband and entering quarantine, Anne Liu Kellor faces her ongoing desire for a partner and the necessity of loving herself.
