All the stories we’ve selected as number five in our weekly Top 5 newsletter.
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Am I Writing About My Life, Or Selling Myself Out?
After people repeatedly recognize Shannon Keating and her girlfriend from a personal essay she published about a lesbian cruise, and in the midst of the furor over Natalie Beach’s essay about her friendship with Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway on The Cut, Keating wonders about the line between writer and influencer, and the ethics of writing […]
I Nearly Died Drowning. Here’s What It’s Like to Survive.
On coming to terms with a near-death experience.
‘A World Where Mothers Are Seen’
Vanessa Mártir introduces Writing the Mother Wound, a series of essays on mothering presented in collaboration with Writing our Lives and Longreads.
My Year on a Shrinking Island
Former baker Michael Mount explores the interplay of community, cookie dough, and changing terrain on Martha’s Vineyard
Justin Townes Earl: The Saint of Lost Causes
Fellow singer-songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield, who frequently toured with Earle, described his gift more simply: “He was able to explain trouble better than most.”
I Had To Leave My Mother So I Could Survive
Elisabet Velasquez reckons with a lifetime of disharmony with her religious, mentally ill mother.
When Boomers Must Zoom
“A friend who teaches at another university tells me that a new Yiddish word has been invented: oysgezoomt, ‘over-exposed to Zoom,’ as in ‘Ich bin azoy oysgezoomt!’ (‘I’m so done with Zoom!’)”
Judge a Book Not By its Gender
Lisa Whittington-Hill suggests there’s a distinct gender bias in celebrity memoirs. Where female celebrities are expected to expose all, male writers get to write about whatever they want.
‘Writing This Book Was a Weird Séance ’: An Interview With Deborah Levy
“If you have the depth, the surface can be as light as it’s possible to make it…I don’t mind that ‘Swimming Home’ is sometimes described as a ‘beach read’ — actually that’s a triumph.”
