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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending notable stories by Carolyn Ariella Sofia, Joy Williams, Ben Lerner, Steve Yarbrough, and Elizabeth Spiers.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending memorable pieces by Seth Freed Wessler, Stuart McGurk, Jon Mooallem, Ben Lerner, Kiese Laymon, and Amelia Tait.
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 Soundtrack for Longing, What Museums Reveal, and Our Top 5
“I most love a city I can describe to you by sound or song. Landmarks created via sonic moments, rather than the fleeting nature of architecture.” —Hanif Abdurraqib Welcome to the weekend! I want to thank all the readers who have recently signed up for a Longreads membership. Members will continue to receive this Top […]
On the Hollow Highs of Hallmark Holiday Films (and More)
“Filmmakers use a character’s grief to evoke viewers’ sympathy and cravings for a quick fix. The Christmas widower trope exploits these very human tendencies, triggering sadness for the sake of sadness and making the cheap promise of a neat resolution tied up in a pretty bow.” We hope you enjoyed last week’s story, “Christmas on […]
5 Questions for Kristi Coulter About Writing, Humor, and Getting Sober
“If I couldn’t find humor in sobriety, I probably wouldn’t make it.”
Working Through the Apocalypse: An Interview with Ling Ma
In Ling Ma’s “Severance” — a novel she began to write after getting laid off, while living partly on severance pay — the characters keep going to work, even though they know it’s the end of the world.
Rachel Cusk on Eschewing her ‘Cuskness’ For Her Alter-Ego in ‘Outline’ and ‘Transit’
Rachel Cusk talks to Heidi Julavits about the “trench” she digs between herself and representations of herself, in both memoir and “autofiction.”


