To help demystify dying, Cory Taylor answers questions about what it’s like to have a terminal illness.
death
Posted inEditor's Pick
Questions for Me About Dying
Celebrated Australian novelist Cory Taylor was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. Rejecting the taboos that prevent humans from talking openly about death, she goes on the record with her answers to some of the most typical questions people have asked her about dying.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
The Condition that Shielded My Grandfather From Heartbreak
Kate Axelrod reflects on the last days of her grandmother’s life, and witnessing as her grandfather’s own decline helped him to survive losing his wife of 66 years.
Posted inArts & Culture, Story
The Tears of Denis Johnson
The writer showed his students and friends how to remain an artist, even when one becomes a kind of cult figure.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Death Doulas to the Rescue?
With the onset of death doulas, no one need die alone.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Death Trips
Is dying alone the worst possible thing that can happen? With the onset of death doulas, you need not impose on friends and relatives in your inevitable decline or suffer the shame of kodokushi, the Japanese term for ‘“lonely death,” meaning the quiet but messy end of a solitary life.’
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Sometimes a Tortoise Is More Than a Tortoise
Meet Fred. He’s cold-blooded, beady-eyed, a picky eater, and likely to outlive us all.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Pet Tortoise Who Will Outlive Us All
“It’s humbling to care for an animal that reminds you, each day, of your own imminent death.”
Posted inProfiles & Interviews
Putting Together the Pieces of Her Grandmother’s Mysterious Death
For her essay in the New Yorker, Kate Daloz relied on a precious set of letters to tell the story of her grandmother’s abortion.
Posted inCurrent Events, Profiles & Interviews
How ProPublica and NPR Changed the Narrative About Maternity Care in America
Reporters Nina Martin and Renee Montagne go behind the scenes of their multi-part series on women who die in childbirth.