Pam Houston on Coming Clean, Climate Change, and ‘Writing Deeply Into the Grasses’ By Kim Steutermann Rogers Feature Pam Houston’s new memoir is an ode to her beloved ranch, but also deals directly with the harrowing moments of childhood abuse that her fictional characters have been living through for years.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee By Longreads Feature “Our cultures are not dead and our civilizations have not been destroyed. Our present tense is evolving as rapidly and creatively as everyone else’s.”
Insomnia: To Pursue Sleep So Hard You Become Invigorated By the Chase By Longreads Feature Insomnia is not just a state of sleeplessness, a matter of negatives. It involves the active pursuit of sleep. It is a state of longing.
Father of Disorder By Jessica Wilbanks Feature One woman finds insight into her father’s rage in the scientific concept of entropy.
Nic and David Sheff on ‘Beautiful Boy’ and Telling Addiction Stories Responsibly By Zachary Siegel Feature Nic and his father David Sheff’s memoirs about grappling with Nic’s addiction are the basis for the new movie ‘Beautiful Boy.’ It was important to them that the movie communicate what addiction really is — an illness.
Raised by Hip-Hop By Juan Vidal Feature In hip-hop and skateboarding, one young man finds an outlet for his aggression.
Greens By Longreads Feature “’I’m good,’ I told him. I didn’t tell him I was running eleven miles, playing two hours of ball, and eating eight hundred calories a day.”
‘As a Grown Woman, I Still Have To Continuously Learn To Say No’ By Wei Tchou Feature Memoirist Tanya Marquardt talks about consent, trauma, and investigating our memories in the age of #MeToo.
‘I Didn’t Have the Language to Call It Racism’: An Interview with Nicole Chung By Victoria Namkung Feature Nicole Chung wants white parents of transracial adoptees to grapple more candidly with the reality of racism in America.
It’s Time to Stop Painting Joyce Maynard as an ‘Oversharer’ Already By Sari Botton Highlight In the #metoo era, there’s no excuse for continuing to deride women like Maynard who speak out about their experiences with men who had much more power.
Falling in Love with Chicago at Night: An Interview with Jessica Hopper By Ashley Naftule Feature In “Night Moves,” Jessica Hopper is 80% on her bike and 20% at a show, memorializing a young adulthood spent in just one of “a million Chicagos” — but one that shaped a wide network of artists and writers.
Hiking With Nietzsche By John Kaag Feature An infirmed Friedrich Nietzsche hiked the Swiss Alps to work on his writing. Philosopher John Kaag followed Nietzsche’s trail, taking the great thinker’s ideas out of his books and into the world.
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth By Longreads Feature “There’s an idea that laborers end up in their role because it’s all they’re suited for. What put us there, though, was birth, family history — not lack of talent for something else.”
A Song for the River By Philip Connors Feature In the mountains of southwestern New Mexico, a seasoned fire lookout watches as his beloved forest and his personal life burn, and he tries to imagine what will arise from their ashes.
Vanishing Twins By Leah Dieterich Feature After years of bonding closely with other people, one woman finally goes searching for herself.
Not Quite Not White By Longreads Feature Sharmila Sen grew up understanding distinctions between castes and religions, between the educated and the illiterate. Race was a distinction she didn’t understand until she came to America.
A Girl’s Guide to Missiles By Longreads Feature A professor returns to the California military base where she grew up to make sense of her family’s role developing weapons for the US government.
Michelle Tea and the Betrayal of Queer Memoir By Alana Mohamed Feature Memoir is always a betrayal. When writing about life in queer subcultures, the harm of honesty can feel even greater.
Eight Things You Need to Know About Me and the Beach By May-lee Chai Feature A white woman came up to my mother, leaned in close and said, “We whites have to stick together against the Asian invasion.” My mother was ecstatic. “She liked me! They like me here!”
The Inward Empire By christiandonlan Feature A new father with early-stage MS sets out to understand the interiors of his daughter’s mind, and his own.
But What Will Your Parents Think? By Morgan Jerkins Feature Morgan Jerkins tackles the time-worn question of how far is too far to go in revealing yourself in first-person writing.
The Red Caddy By Aaron Gilbreath Feature The first biography of Edward Abbey in a generation is closer to a memoir about friendship between two crusty desert rats.
Sober Gay Man Seeks…What, Exactly, He’s No Longer Sure By Larry Ruhl Feature A survivor of childhood sexual abuse now in recovery, Larry Ruhl finds himself adrift in the age of hookup apps.
The Quest for the Collision Zone: An Arctic Expedition By Longreads Feature Geologists on a mission to vindicate their theory of a lost mountain range discover something even more significant buried beneath the ice.
How to Write a Memoir While Grieving By Nicole Chung Feature Nicole Chung contemplates loss, adoption, and working on a book her late father won’t get to see.
Vanishing As a Way to Reclaim Your Life By Aaron Gilbreath Feature On the eve of her marriage, an adventurous young woman tests how free she really wants to be.
The Memoirist’s Dilemma By Sari Botton Highlight Fourteen years after her memoir about about her father’s death was released, novelist Aminatta Forna still deals with after-effects, both good and bad.
Take Me Home By Kathryn Kefauver Goldberg Feature While teaching English to communist party officials in post-war Laos, Kathryn Kefauver Goldberg reflects on silence and the legacy of trauma.
Eileen Myles: There’s No Escaping History By Sari Botton Commentary The poet and one-time presidential candidate isn’t the least bit surprised by the state of our union.
Cory Taylor Answers Your Questions About Dying By Krista Stevens Highlight To help demystify dying, Cory Taylor answers questions about what it’s like to have a terminal illness.
