Thank You for Finding Me
As a teenager, I met a stranger who changed the course of my life. Twenty years later, I went looking for him.
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Disneyland of the Dead
London’s Highgate Cemetery shows us just how hard it is to keep the dead buried.
Bread and Honey
Sometimes, marriage is about learning how to braid the bitter with the sweet.
Eight Limes, No More: The Accidental Poetry of Found Lists
A found list is a rare analog window into someone else’s needs—an accidental autobiography, a blank space to be filled with one’s imagination.
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Kickstart your weekend by getting the week’s best reads, hand-picked and introduced by Longreads editors, delivered to your inbox every Friday morning.
Weekly Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Sharing stories from John Woodrow Cox, Sarah Blaskey, and Matt McClain; Daphne Chouliaraki Milner and Marcia Bjornerud; Susan Choi; Henry Wismayer; and Susannah Pratt.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Aaron Parsley, David Peisner, Leah Zani, Joseph Earl Thomas, and Matt Reynolds.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending excellent stories from Lewis Hyde, Reeves Wiedeman, Sam Myers, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David W. Brown.
Essays and Features
How to Observe
Searching for ritual during a season of mystery.
When the Hit Man Starts Talking
“A former FBI agent traveled to Louisiana to ask a hired killer about a murder that haunted him. Then they started talking about a different case altogether.”
The Emoji Tongue
If 😂 was a word, would that make emoji a language?
There’s Gold in the Hills
In the wide, quiet spaces of BLM land, I heard echoes of a past we’ve buried—and a future we still might save.
The Edge of Emptiness
Lena Rowat skied 1,600 grueling miles across the Coast Range to quiet her demons. But she didn’t begin to silence them until tragedy struck.
The Fish That Climbed a Mountain
The wild tale of a small fishing club, a national park, and an epic battle over alien trout.
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Reading Lists
Fleeing Family: A Reading List on Estrangement
Seven stories highlighting the perspective of estranged adult children.
Kingdom of Funga: A Mycelial Reading List on a Strange and Surreal World Around Us
Seven stories celebrating the kingdom of funga’s beauty and power.
Suspended Falling: A Reading List on Walking
After seven million years of evolution, walking feels as natural as breathing. But as our environments evolve, so do our ways of walking through them.
What’s Your Type? A Reading List on Typefaces with Wild Tales to Tell
Seven stories exploring our love affair with type.
Love, Lust, Loneliness: A Valentine’s Day Reading List
Essays, reading lists, and editors’ picks on relationships, breakups, and many different kinds of love.
Remember the Titans: An ‘Attack on Titan’ Reading List
The influential anime didn’t just upend kaiju tropes—it delivered an unsettling look at imperialism and hubris.
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