“For decades, the Houston folklorist labored over his biography of the legendary bluesman. Seven years after McCormick’s death, the book is finally out—and so are the secrets long kept by its troubled author.”
Search results
Posted inQuestionnaire
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Kimon de Greef
The Ego Trip author on the sea, the pull of South Africa, and how his ecology background shapes the stories he tells.
Posted inUncategorized
What Neko Case taught me about curation and the week’s Top 5
“When the media covered women in the grunge and alternative scene, it treated them like a genre unto itself. This genre, though, received almost no in-depth profiles or features.” Books are one of the great joys in my life. The other is music. I’ve been following singer songwriter Neko Case since 1997, after picking up […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Say It Loud
“My two-steps-from-sexagenarian ass is old enough to know all the avant funk-jazz sources of [Kamasi] Washington and company’s aesthetic (Horace Tapscott, Sanders, Tyner, The Crusaders, Stanley Cowell, Strata East, Black Jazz) so The Epic couldn’t reach my ears as a spiritual, political and musical revelation. But it has been fascinating nonetheless to witness young friends […]
Posted inNewsletter
Our Year in Reading and the Week’s Top 5
Every story changes our mind in some small way. They’re already in implicit conversation with one another, and our “Year in Reading” series acknowledges that.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Notes From the Underground
“Inside the world of underground warehouse raves, forest parties, and Freetekno.”
Posted inUncategorized
Sob Stories, Movie Memes, and the Week’s Top 5
“While crying has featured in some of my most life-defining moments, I can also be set off anywhere, anytime, by almost anything. In the last week alone, I’ve cried looking at a social media account of a husky puppy and older cat (who are best friends), watching a sports documentary about a basketball team I […]
Posted inTop 5
Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we’re sharing stories from Kamran Javadizadeh, Joshua Hunt, Amy McCarthy, Jaron Lanier, and Andy Greene.
Posted inUncategorized
The Toll of War and the Week’s Top 5
“Tesfaye wan’t sure where the gunfire was coming from, and with service outages across Mekelle, he couldn’t look online for answers. He was certain something was very wrong. But what could he do? He got dressed and did what he did most mornings. He went to work.” Every month, we share an excerpt from our […]
Posted inFeature
A Year in Reading: Restraint as Wisdom
We live in a culture built on ignoring limits—of land, of bodies, of attention—and these stories kept returning me to that truth.
