illness Archives - Longreads

Is Anyone Ever Well?

by Cheri Lucas Rowlands January 31, 2023January 31, 2023

Two new books see disability as a source of solidarity.

Love, COVID, and Other Risks

by Cheri Lucas Rowlands April 27, 2022October 19, 2022

Throughout the pandemic, Emma Healey and her immunocompromised partner — a liver transplant recipient — have constantly weighed and navigated day-to-day risks. As Toronto opens up, making decisions have become even more confusing. In this essay, Healey reflects on health, risk, and love. We are all making our decisions the same way—with one eye on […]

illustration of paper head with scribbles inside to show confusion

Nonfiction, Reading List, Story

Disbelieving What You Cannot See: A Reading List on Ableism and ‘Invisible’ Disability

by A.H. Reaume February 10, 2022October 19, 2022

Start your unlearning here.

I’ve Fled New York with My Wife, Kids and Dog – Just as my Ancestors Fled the 1918 Pandemic

by Sari Botton April 2, 2020October 19, 2022

After covering the plights of refugees around the world as a journalist, Bryan Mealer finds himself a refugee, fleeing New York City for his childhood home of west Texas — where his great-grandmother and her oldest daughter died in the influenza epidemic of 1918.

Nonfiction

The Consequences of Surviving

by Carolyn Wells March 10, 2020October 17, 2022

“As medicine advances, we have more survivors. But those survivors carry trauma to their graves.”

Essays & Criticism, Highlight, Quotes

How Do You Live In a Body That Doesn’t Feel Like Yours? If You Have No Choice, You Just Do.

by michelleweber February 28, 2020October 19, 2022

Paraic O’Donnell chronicles the progression of his MS with clarity, beauty, wit, and no small amount of sadness. Picking the most striking paragraph in this essay full of them is a fool’s errand.