No one remembers the assassination of Congressman James M. Hinds. What do we risk by making it just another part of American history?
storytelling
Posted inEditor's Pick
Our Narrative Prison
“The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Texas Border Is the New Frontier of Film
“After years of having their stories told by outsiders, locals are fighting back with their own cameras and building much-needed infrastructure. But they need more support.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How a Script Doctor Found His Own Voice
“For decades, Scott Frank earned up to three hundred thousand dollars a week rewriting other people’s screenplays. Finally, he decided to stop playing ventriloquist.”
Posted inNonfiction
Best Of 2023: Features
At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
Posted inReading List
Stories of Quarantine and Upheaval: A Reading List on the Power of Personal Narrative
During times of isolation and dramatic change, our stories from around the world are an essential global historical record.Â
Posted inEditor's Pick
What If We Cancel the Apocalypse?
“How the aesthetic, utopian yet pragmatic movement of Solarpunk reimagines a future without a climate catastrophe.”
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews
Behind the Story: Mailee Osten-Tan on Reporting on Gender Confirmation Surgery in Thailand
Mailee Osten-Tan on learning how to be a better ally to the members of marginalized communities and what she discovered while reporting on trans healthcare issues for Longreads.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Tale Spin
What is storytelling? Megan Marz explores stories, narratives, blog posts, and vibes in this Real Life essay. While I could recognize that blog posts were narrative constructions, and many of them had conventional arcs, they seemed to break with a tradition that to me defined what stories were. They appeared to leak literary expression back […]