This edition includes writing from Cynthia R. Greenlee, Krithika Srinivason, Noah Vineberg, Monica Mark, and Alex Pappademas.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Nights and Days
“Maybe anybody who can become transparent to experience and articulate it truthfully and without distortion is a poet. Even if the facts are scary or horrible, what comes out, if true, might be beautiful.”
Posted inNewsletter
Mulling Desire, Honoring Murdered Women, and Our Top 5
I had no idea that the hot, tingly pain of blood returning to a frozen extremity is called the screaming barfies, until I read “What Is a Body For?” by Diana Saverin.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Is Traveling to Every Country in the World a Worthy Cause? This Group Thinks So.
“I tagged along on a surreal trip to a conflict zone in Azerbaijan with a group of explorers known as the world’s Most Traveled People.”
Posted inNewsletter
Burgling the Rich, a Cat’s Life Lessons, and Our Top 5
“I learned to adore the way he sidled against me and to hate his momentary affection, just as he learned to detach from me in weariness and depend on me in hunger. Days with him were a quick education in a cat’s existence.” I once spent a year shadowing a musician I loved, whose body […]
Posted inFeature
Uncanny Testimony
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Chuck Palahniuk Is Not Who You Think He Is
“Twenty-six books in, the author has made a career of writing about loners, misfits, and deviants. But the man behind these controversial and transgressive fictions is full of surprises.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: the appeal of the surreal, decoding AI dreck, goop relations, learning to think, and pigeon racing pitfalls
Posted inNonfiction
Best of 2023: Personal Essays
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.
Posted inNewsletter
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 […]
