“For me, passing means trying to be anything other than what I was, and what I fear so desperately I always will be: poor white trash.”
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Posted inFeature
“I Had to Face the Blues Every Day”
Soul and gospel singer Candi Staton let no hardship stand in the way of her voice, one that helped define the music of her generation.
Posted inNonfiction
A Sketch Artist, a Grieving Mother, and An Unsolved Mystery
They set out to solve a cold case. The more they dug, the more terrifying the truth became.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Infinite Jerk
Within “the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and sexism in the publishing industry,” jerks are praised and women are erased.
Posted inFeature
Even the Steam Had a Shadow
“He couldn’t remember coming here, or going anywhere. He looked down at himself. With a writhe of horror, he found he couldn’t even remember getting dressed. His clothes were unfamiliar.”
Posted inStory
Sentenced to Life At 16
Adolfo Davis hoped a Supreme Court ruling would give him a chance at a new beginning. But nothing about freedom turned out as he expected.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Party Girl
An essay in which Longreads contributor Monica Drake recounts learning that a young, white, male intern at a literary magazine she’d submitted to had publicly humiliated her by taking her story to a party to read aloud and mock a sex scene she had included — a scene in which gender dynamics are upended.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the Spectacular Implosion at the Romance Writers of America
As the book publishing industry changed, the roles that the Romance Writers of America played becama less clear, and the organization’s troubled relationship with inclusion and intersectionality became increasingly problematic.
Posted inNonfiction
On Silence (or, Speak Again)
Elissa Bassist breaks her silence about everything she’s not supposed to talk about and comes out alive.
