Why would a tenure-track professor find himself selling his plasma to make rent? A story about debt in the academic world.
essays
A Shot in the Arm
Why would a tenure-track professor find himself selling his plasma to make rent? A story about debt in the academic world.
When Things Go Missing
On two forms of loss: grief and the misplacement of everyday objects.
Feeling Unsafe at Every Size
Our new president’s predatory attitudes towards women transport Eva Tenuto straight back to a high school teacher’s abuse of power and the relentless criticism of her junior high peers that made her an ideal target.
The United States of America: A Country of Contradictions
Conservative political commentator Andrew Sullivan recently became a United States citizen. In New York magazine, Sullivan reflects on how he learned to embrace the U.S.’s flaws and virtues as he watched the country go through social and political shifts over the last three decades.
America Is Still the Future
Sullivan reflects back on his time as a foreigner in the U.S. and how he learned to embrace the country’s flaws and virtues during his journey of becoming a citizen.
In Defense of Facts: What Is the Essay?
When does fact become fiction? William Deresiewicz on essays, embellishment, and the slippery slope of “truthiness.”
Against Confession: On Intersectional Feminism, Radical Catholicism, and Redefining Remorse
Laura Goode investigates her Catholic identity—the radical, feminist, social-justice-oriented version she discovered upon encountering the mysteries of marriage and motherhood—years after her departure from the guilt-stricken, conservative Catholicism of her upbringing.
Longreads Best of 2016: Essays & Criticism
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in essays and criticism.
What Can and Can’t be Learned From a Book
How learning to swim at 24 led Syam Palakurthy to first-hand lessons in gentrification.
