“The Irish author Sebastian Barry has made a career of mining his family history. But he kept one story buried.”
trauma
Posted inEditor's Pick
You Should’ve Said Something
“I had to do everything the jurors did—sit in every court session, examine each piece of evidence, look out from the jury box every day at a man accused of murder—but I wouldn’t participate in the deliberation unless two jurors dropped out.”
Posted inFeature
Going Up and Going In
A solo climber considers the outermost reaches of risk, and the unlikely ways in which they redefine us.
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Science Knows About Grief
“After my husband’s death, I had never been more pliable, tender, open, or raw. It was then that I tried E.M.D.R. therapy.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt
“Historians and nonfiction authors often glide over lived experience. They prefer actions, citations, details, dates. But I had just gone through something primal—something beyond my control and beyond the boundaries of modern life.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Family Doctor’s Search for Salvation
“Instead of turning inward after the death of his son, Dr. Greg Gulbransen turned outward: toward documentary photography and people whose lives he might be able to save.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What I Inherited from My Criminal Great-Grandparents
“In working through the Winter case files, I often felt pinpricks of déjà vu: an exact turn of phrase, an absurdly specific expenditure.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Teacher in Room 1214
“When a gunman killed two of her students, Ivy Schamis was the only adult in the room. Her journey through guilt and healing sheds light on the impossible role of American teachers.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Hero
“Rich Fierro fought in America’s war on terror. Then terror found him at home.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Children Who Lost Limbs In Gaza
“More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures hold?”