Happy New Year! Here’s our first Top 5 list of 2023.
The Sun
Fighting the Tree
“Maybe I wasn’t the son Dad wanted. Maybe, if he could have, he would have picked another kid, a son he could enjoy parenting.”
Longreads Best of 2019: Essays
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays.
Living to Tell About It
Struggling with trauma, sexual objectification, and self-harm, the teenage T Kira Madden found salvation in her close relationships with other young women.
Finding Grace Between Love and Loss
One single mother’s journey to construct a sense of self that’s true to herself, not to other people.
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Sam Kriss, in a post he calls his “magnum opus” in The Outline, explores the age-old warning not to stare directly at the sun.
What Happens When You Stare at the Sun?
“The injunction not to look directly into the sun isn’t just medical — it’s always political.”