Hainanese chicken rice has long been a comfort food staple for untold millions around the world, including many who aren’t of Chinese descent. And when Theodore Rice, a writer who falls squarely in that not-of-Chinese-descent category, set out to learn to make one of his favorite dishes, he found himself embroiled in an existential dilemma […]
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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 […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Sarah Miller, James D. Walsh, Hanif Abdurraqib, Gabrielle Drolet, and Jeremiah David.
Help Us Publish Stories That Outlast the Noise
We’re a home for stories that linger. In 2017, I reached out to Candace Rardon, a writer and artist whose watercolor sketches I’d admired for years. Up until that point, I’d only edited traditional essays for Longreads, but I wanted to experiment with illustrated personal narratives. We brainstormed a visual direction, and the final piece […]
With Melville in Pittsfield
“The true believers were nowhere in sight on that snowy morning.”
‘Actually Really Sacred’: A George Saunders Reading List
Nine essays and interviews from literature’s favorite laureate of compassion.
What Professional Organizers Know About Our Lives
“Overwhelmed by too much stuff, we hire experts to help us sort things out. But what’s really behind all the clutter?”
More Than Pony Patrol: The Park Rangers of Assateague Island
The best nature writing doesn’t just evoke the outdoors; it makes you want to get up from wherever you’re reading and go be there too. You may not drop everything to go see the wild horses and undisturbed beachfront of Maryland’s largest state park, but the next time you’re nearby you’ll think of the people […]


