Eight stories on the power and beauty of visual communication.
The Paris Review
‘Actually Really Sacred’: A George Saunders Reading List
Nine essays and interviews from literature’s favorite laureate of compassion.
Balthazar, 1997
“The noise between the world in which we had known each other and the world I occupied now went silent, or maybe only hushed.”
Best of 2025: The Stories You Missed
In a year of exceptional reading, these overlooked stories refused to let us go.
A Year in Reading: Inward Journeys
Navigating a world in flux demands some understanding of who you really are, and some of my favorite pieces from this year speak to that need.
A Year in Reading: When We Are Redefined
From bull rides to military parades, the world transforms us in surprising ways. The best stories get close enough to document our transformation.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: the appeal of the surreal, decoding AI dreck, goop relations, learning to think, and pigeon racing pitfalls
Homeward Bound: On Pigeon Racing
“They flap their wings as fast as they can until they disappear over the horizon—all heading toward Chicago, all heading home.”
Car Talk
“I’d kept up my license, but now I needed a car. What kind of car? As in the usual run of things—a congenital tilt towards irreality, an obdurate wistfulness—I pined for something that did not exist: the car at the end of the mind.”
The Man in the New Boots
“Maybe it’s that it’s goddamned insane to ride a bull, and America is full of crazy people who for no earthly reason see that sort of thing and want to try it themselves.”
