Dworin weaves together the memory of losing her mother to an illness during her childhood with her story of becoming a mother and caring for children with their own illnesses.
essays
Elizabeth Wurtzel Made it Okay to Write ‘Ouch’
Today’s memoirists and personal essay writers owe a debt of gratitude to the Prozac Nation author for rewriting an inhibiting rule.
When the Dishes Are Done, I Wonder About Progress
In “Coventry,” Rachel Cusk draws a connection between politeness and narrative death, rudeness and tragedy, storytelling and war.
‘The Survivor’s Edit’: Bassey Ikpi on Memory, Truth, and Living with Bipolar II
Bassey Ikpi discusses writing about mental illness. “I could count on the morning. It became the thing that existed without my input… without determining whether or not I was worthy of it.”
Mountains, Transcending
“Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
‘We Live in an Atmosphere of General Inexorability’: An Interview with Jia Tolentino
Jia Tolentino talks about what kinds of personalities thrive online, why she is suspicious of her own self-narrative, and the pervading sense that everything’s spiraling out of control.
A Reading List of Long-form Writing by Asian Americans
Longreads editor-in-chief Mike Dang shares some of his favorite long-form writing by Asian American journalists.
The Wind Sometimes Feels in Error
Each year the balloon strained and strained against its cords.
Shovel, Knife, Story, Ax
When you live with animals, you collect killing stories.
