When a student in her writing workshop submits a piece suggesting his character could ‘take’ a teacher just like her ‘atop her desk,’ Courtney Zoffness is flooded with memories of men touching her against her will.
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The Reality of Being Sick and Alone
Diagnosed with breast cancer, Anne Boyer discusses the treatment that is poisoning her body.
If Following McMillan Cottom and Gay on Twitter Isn’t Enough, Here You Go
More of this sort of thing, thanks.
It’s Like That: The Makings of a Hip-Hop Writer
Hip-hop was a different kind of music that needed a different kind of writer to cover it. This is how Michael A. Gonzales came of age in a time when Black writers began breaking the white ceiling.
Debt Demands a Body
“The future that debt chose for me — indeed the future it chooses for many people — included a lot of shame, confusion, and pain.”
Longreads Best of 2019: Arts and Culture
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in arts and culture.
“The Glitter-scurfed Frappuccinos” Is Totally the Name of My New Band
Don’t disrespect the fish. Or do! It’s your dinner.
Bracing for the Silence of an Empty Nest
As her son finishes high school and prepares to leave for college, Michelle Cruz Gonzales looks back on his early years as a pianist and anticipates a future without the sound of his playing filling the house.
‘By Choice, and Not By Choice…Time Is Going To Change You.’
Nina MacLaughlin discusses her retelling of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. “[In] my very vague high school memories…there was no discussion of the fact that this book is just rape after rape after rape.”
Our Words Will Save Us and Set Us Free
In the wake of having his writing career belittled, Jackson Bliss becomes an interpreter for a refugee and comes to see words, translations, and storytelling as important acts of resistance.
