Five notable personal essays published this year, on friendship, loss, war, endings, and metaphors.
essay
Posted inNonfiction
Our Most-Read Longreads Originals of 2022
These essays and reported features are our most-read stories of the year.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Reading Joan Didion Taught Me How to Not Write About Hawaiʻi
“Didion depicts Hawaiʻi as a place that exists solely in the white American imagination, and, because of this, her journalism is a fiction.”
Posted inQuote Posts
‘Exposed as the Mother Who Cannot Weave’: Grace Loh Prasad on Family and Community
In a recent essay, Grace Loh Prasad muses on motherhood, the bond of family, and finding community.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Orca and the Spider: On Motherhood, Loss, and Community
“Try as I might, there is no material stronger than kinship.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Constraints: A Hometown Ode
“When I was in high school, ambition meant two things: escaping my hometown and becoming a writer.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Noncompliant Heart
“Why was I chosen to lead the Pledge of Allegiance? My heart demands an answer to this question.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Departures
“Tang tells the heartbreaking story of one woman, Daisy, who’s given up so much. Sadly, it’s the story for so many.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Gun Person
There are many different versions of the so-called teacher’s oath. Many of them mention education, support, compassion. None of them mention active-shooter training. Yet, to be a teacher in the United States these days is to confront that very nightmare — as Andrew Scott does in this understated gem. This will be what I take […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Both Sides Now
A deep look inside the byzantine subculture of high-school debate — and the misogyny and toxic behavior that lurked therein — from a onetime participant. Heart-stopping and eye-opening. Boys who were strong debaters were said to possess Good Debater Syndrome, meaning that their skill made them seem more attractive to their female peers. For girls, […]