Our favorite personal essays published this year include stories on loss, Indigenous community, video games, caring for aging relatives, and the fear of missing love.
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Posted inBooks
Around The Pit
Circling billions of gallons of toxic water at America’s largest Superfund site.
Posted inFeature
Into the Devil’s Jaw
How a a wrong turn led to the largest peacetime disaster in American naval history.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Betrayal
“America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan added moral injury to military failure. But a group of soldiers, veterans, and ordinary citizens came together to try to save Afghan lives and salvage some American honor.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Ilya Kaminsky on Ukrainian, Russian, and the Language of War
In this excerpt from a 2017 essay, the poet Ilya Kaminsky reflects on Russian aggression against Ukraine and considers, among many things, one scholar’s refusal to speak Russian in his classroom as a form of protest. “I couldn’t stop thinking about Boris’s refusal to speak his own language as an act of protest against the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Online Shopping in the Middle of the Ocean
There’s no Amazon same-day delivery service for people living on the remote islands of French Polynesia, so locals launched their own e-commerce business and courier service to fill the gap. HM Coursier Express initially delivered anywhere: within Tahiti, to other islands, and also abroad. In the first year, Henriou built up a client base of […]
Posted inFeature
Taken and Told
A filmmaker was producing a documentary series on the Iran hostage crisis. Then her father went missing overseas.
Posted inReading List
Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2025
Kickstart your reading year with 10 short stories selected by longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Human Toll of America’s Air Wars
“A trove of internal documents, combined with extensive reporting across the Middle East, reveals the tragic, disastrous failures of the U.S. military’s long-distance approach to warfare.”
Posted inFeature
A Hand From One Page, A Bomb From Another: Rethinking “Spy vs. Spy”
The iconic comic strip may seem simple, but its central metaphor has proven impossible to replicate.
