Families Like Ours: A Reading List for the Children of Queer Parents
By Melissa Hart In the 1980s, kids and their queer parents in the U.S. marched together in pride parades in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. I, on the other hand, hid in my bedroom in my...
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The Women Who Built Grunge
Lisa Whittington-Hill | Longreads | June 2022 | 16 minutes (4,445 words) Jennifer Finch is smiling, but she’s clearly frustrated. “Everywhere I go, everywhere I turn, I see this fucking face,” says...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Tom: A Tom Cruise Reading List
By Chloe Walker In the days of classic Hollywood, the private lives of movie actors were zealously guarded — and often downright fabricated — so the viewing public would believe their carefully...
View ArticleFinal Girl, Terrible Place
Lesley Finn | Longreads | July 2022 | 27 minutes (7,517 words) I. EXT. SUBURBAN BACKYARD POOL (DETROIT) – DAY A teenage girl floats in the water, alone. Starfished, she stares at the sky in peaceful,...
View ArticleHow Vladimir Putin Helped ‘Nazify’ Modern Germany
Leigh Baldwin and Sean Williams | The Atavist Magazine | June 2022 | 9 minutes (2,584 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 128, “Follow the Leader,” published in partnership with...
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“I Had to Face the Blues Every Day”
David Gambacorta | Longreads | July 2022 | 16 minutes (4,445 words) The girl was no more than 12. Night had fallen, and the caravan of gospel singers that she’d traveled with from Nashville had steered...
View ArticleAn Unseen World: A Reading List about Fermentation
By Julia Skinner Long before we were human, we were microbes, and from a common ancestor we evolved into the many creatures that led to us being who we are today. But our relationship to the microbial...
View ArticleThis Old Dog
Keshia Naurana Badalge | Longreads | July 2022 | 10 minutes (3, 285words) For each year that I move around the sun, my sister ages seven times as much. The odds are in my favor that even though we...
View ArticleThe Fact-Check and the Fury: A Chat With the Writers and Editor Behind The...
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 323, in which he...
View ArticleWhat We Save, What We Destroy: A Reading List on Difficult Heritage
By Annalisa Bolin Years ago, during a stop in Phnom Penh while on a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia, I visited Tuol Sleng, a museum of the Cambodian genocide, and Choeung Ek, the killing...
View ArticleMore Than a Feeling: A Blues Reading List
By Chris Wheatley “Before Elvis there was nothing,” John Lennon famously once said about his own musical awakening — but, as Presley himself frequently acknowledged, there would have been no Elvis...
View ArticleGalloping Into the Abyss
Jana Meisenholder| The Atavist Magazine | August 2022 | 7 minutes (2,197 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 129, “King of the Hill.” *** The Atavist Magazine, our sister site,...
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Odd, Genius, or Something In Between: A Reading List on Writers
By Lisa Bubert When asked to picture a writer’s life, many people envision a cliché: someone holed up alone in a cabin in the woods, writing longhand on a yellow notepad, until they emerge months later...
View ArticleThe Skeleton, the Meat, and the Bones: A Chat With the Writer and Editor...
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 326, in which...
View ArticleVoices of Rebirth: A Reading List on Being Indigenous in America
By Autumn Fourkiller When my father died in October 2020 — when the world was already in a collective COVID-19 haze and period of constant grief — I turned inward. I found myself unable to read...
View ArticleThe Excesses of Compassion: A Reading List on Fallen Gurus
By Blair Glaser Stories about gurus can be as seductive as the swindlers they profile. Even though they are entirely predictable — charismatic leader offers a solution to life’s hardship, makes...
View Article‘Stay Away From Miller’
Seyward Darby | The Atavist Magazine | August 2022 | 10 minutes (2,937 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 130, “Fault Lines.” The Atavist Magazine, our sister site, publishes...
View ArticleThe Substance of Silence: A Reading List About Hermits
By Chris Wheatley Call them recluses, hermits, or even solitudinarians, examples of folk choosing to live a life apart from their fellow humans are as old as the written word. Many, but not all, of...
View ArticleMonsters, Mothers, Mulieres: A Reading List on The Women of Classical Antiquity
By Rachel Ashcroft History is supposedly written by the victors. It is certainly written by the people who were taught basic literacy skills. In Ancient Greek and Roman society, this means men recorded...
View ArticleThe Passing of a Monarch: A Reading List on Queen Elizabeth II
By Alison Fishburn At the center of the photo book my sister made of our 2014 trip to London is a collage of partial views. One photo features a glimpse of the side of Queen Elizabeth’s face while she...
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