“Above all else, Morrison’s rejection letters focus on craft—that is, on the experience of reading a work under review.”
Search results
Inside Beirut’s Fight To Save Its Reading Culture
“As reading declines and self-censorship grows, bookshops are shuttering in the city once hailed as the Arab world’s publishing capital.”
Are Memories Transferable — or Edible?
“In the 1960s, worm-training experiments and their strange implications captivated the nation.”
Our Best Of 2025 Is Here
Next week we’ll be sharing our favorite reads across several categories next week; first, though, we’re publishing a series of essays from your trusty Longreads editors, reflecting on our reading over the past year.
Announcing Our 2025 Member Drive
It’s easy to think that thoughtful longform journalism is an endangered species. We refuse to believe that—and we need your help.
I’d Like to Report a Murder
“Lauren Oyler and Brandon Taylor talk to hannah baer about the dark art of literary takedowns.”
Monumental Tiny News
“The triumph of Lucy Lippard’s El Puente, which is as engaged with the past of a New Mexican village as it is with daily life.”
This Giving Day, Give Yourself Longreads
Many of the organizations you’ll hear from today are well worth your time and generosity—but I happen to think that Longreads is too.
Days of the Jackal
How Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business.
The Journalist Who the Nazis Could Not Silence
No one has ever received more nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize than Carl von Ossietzky. This is his story.

