The Emptying
Marilyn Kriete | Longreads | April 2022 | 46 minutes (8,273 words) I check the bathroom first. Tiles lie fallen in the tub. The paint has given up. Mildewed curtains shade the toilet, a nasty mess of...
View ArticleCelebrating 13 Years of Longreads
This past Sunday, Longreads celebrated its 13th anniversary, and we couldn’t be prouder. What originated in 2009 as a Twitter hashtag has grown into a space for readers and writers around the world. In...
View ArticleTomorrow Isn’t Over: A Reading List About Brighter Futures
By Peter Hemminger These are dark days for hope. From an ongoing, ever-mutating global pandemic to international conflict and the threat of nuclear war, to an impeccably researched, 3,600-page report...
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The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting
Robert Isenberg | Longreads | April 2022 | 10 minutes (2,788 words) “I am bowling along beneath overhanging peach and mulberry trees,” recalls Thomas Stevens, in the 19th chapter of Around the World on...
View ArticleLow Country, High Water: A Reading List for a South Under Climate Change
By Spencer George I don’t remember the first time I saw the water rise. There is no moment in my memory that stands out as a shift; the water has always been impossible to ignore. I spent my teenage...
View ArticleDown and Out in Habersham
William Torrey | Longreads | May 2022 | 22 minutes (6,162 words) For Matt McAuliffe I Sometime during what I hoped would be the end of the pandemic, I found myself hungover and alone in my front yard,...
View Article‘This Wasn’t His First Time’
Katia Savchuk | The Atavist Magazine | April 2022 | 17 minutes (4,588 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 126, “A Crime Beyond Belief.” 1. The Atavist, our sister publication,...
View ArticlePlotting Out Structure and Writing Out Heroes: A Chat With the Writer and...
As host of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, Brendan O’Meara is no stranger to talking about the art and craft of storytelling. In this craft-focused excerpt, we’re digging into Episode 313, in which he...
View ArticleCelebrating Bitch Magazine: A Reading List
By A. H. Reaume My first subscription to Bitch Magazine was a gift. I was in my second year of university and couldn’t afford to subscribe. So, when my sister asked what I wanted for my birthday, the...
View ArticleCabin Fever: A Reading List for the Perpetually Isolated
By Kara Devlin It was only a few weeks ago that I found out cabin fever — the restlessness, irritability, and loneliness that a person feels when confined to one place for too long — was a genuine,...
View ArticleOur Braided Bread
Benjamin DuBow | Longreads | May 2022 | 16 minutes (4,536 words) Reader note: Click the footnote numbers to jump to note; from there, click the numbers again to return to the story. Early on Friday...
View ArticleSister of the Moon: A Stevie Nicks Reading List
By Jill Spivey Caddell When Rolling Stone published an updated list of the 500 greatest songs of all time last year, a tune that had not been included at all in the 2004 iteration of the list suddenly...
View Article‘We Are Everywhere’: A Reading List for the Queer South
By Spencer George The first person I kissed was a boy, on a beach, late in the evening. The stars were bright overhead, his mouth tasted like tobacco, and I remember thinking that one day I would kiss...
View ArticleA Carefully Constructed Li(f)e
Greg Donahue | The Atavist Magazine | May 2022 | 8 minutes (2,274 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 127, “The Fugitive Next Door.” The Atavist Magazine, our sister site,...
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Finding a Path in a Broken System
Mailee Osten-Tan | Longreads | June 2022 | 7,621 words (27 minutes) CW: This story mentions depression, suicide, and isolation, and discusses different types of gender confirmation surgery and...
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Behind the Story: Mailee Osten-Tan on Reporting on Gender Confirmation...
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Since the first operation in Bangkok in 1975, Thailand has become one of the top destinations for gender confirmation surgery (GCS). But what drives people to seek trans...
View ArticleStranger Things: A Reading List of Unsolved Mysteries
By Lisa Bubert The first novel I ever wrote had a mystery at its heart: a disappearance. It was never explained. It didn’t involve any kind of crime. The disappeared never reappeared. The mystery just...
View ArticleLove Song to Costco
Yuxi Lin | Longreads | June 2022 | 12 minutes (3,311 words) It’s 2004 and my first year in America. I type the word “wholesale” into my digital translator. noun definition: the selling of goods in...
View ArticleThe Thrill of the Perfect Ending: A Chat With the Writer and Editor Behind...
As host of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, Brendan O’Meara is no stranger to talking about the art and craft of storytelling. In this craft-focused excerpt, we’re digging into Episode 318, in which he...
View ArticleQueens of Infamy: Isabella of France
Anne Thériault | Longreads | June 2022 | 29 minutes (8,006 words) From the notorious to the half-forgotten, Queens of Infamy, a Longreads series by Anne Thériault, focuses on world-historical women of...
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