Since I Became Symptomatic
A month after filing for divorce, single mom Leslie Jamison contracted COVID-19. She wrote this meditation on single parenthood, loneliness, longing, and frustration while sheltering in place — and...
View ArticleLearning to Swim Taught Me More Than I Bargained For
In this braided essay, Jazmine Hughes contemplates her resistance to both learning to swim and coming out, and the empowerment each experience offers her when she finally surrenders to them. Read The...
View ArticleAll That Is Lost and All That Is Remembered
On the 30th anniversary of her Navy captain father’s political execution, Naz Riahi recalls her love for him, and reveals a persistent grief that is always with her. Read The Story
View ArticleI’ve Fled New York with My Wife, Kids and Dog – Just as my Ancestors Fled the...
After covering the plights of refugees around the world as a journalist, Bryan Mealer finds himself a refugee, fleeing New York City for his childhood home of west Texas — where his great-grandmother...
View ArticleThe Baller
Weary and frightened by the scary science she encounters on the climate beat, journalist Audrey Gray finds hope in the form of octogenarian Ed Mazria, a former basketball player turned architect...
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‘Let’s Reset’: A Career Social Distancer Mends Some Fences
This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers. Sari Botton | Longreads | April 2020 | 6 minutes (1,521 words) To appreciate the significance of the shift I’m...
View ArticleThe Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020
As Coronavirus leads to a rise in racism, Cathy Park Hong, author of the essay collection, “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning,” reviews the history of slurs and hate crimes against Asians in...
View ArticleThe New York You Once Knew Is Gone. The One You Loved Remains.
In this pandemic-inspired variation on the Goodbye to All That essay, Glynnis MacNicol writes about what it’s like to have stayed in the current ghost town version of New York City when so many other...
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Five Longreads Stories Selected for 2020 Editions of the ‘Best American’ Series
It’s always a thrill when an essay or article we’ve published is selected for publication in one of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s annual, venerated The Best American Series anthologies. This year...
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How to Pitch Personal Essays to Longreads: An Updated Guide
This post is not current. Please read our submission guidelines and this 2022 call for essay submissions. Are you interested in publishing essays on Longreads? It’s important that you read these new...
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