"When the song closes, when the poem closes, when the day closes, you are not obligated to be who you were at the start, but who you were at the start does matter." Hanif Abdurraqib is back at @longreads.com, this time remembering Sade's second album, Promise. longreads.com/2025/11/20/s...

Started my day with "T Shot #9: Ode to My Sharps Container," a beautiful poem by KB Brookins. Here's how it starts: "Holder of loose blood. Taker of contraptions I use when I’m brave enough to save myself. Visual reminder that I can do it. . ." www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

America's liminal wetlands don't just persist, writes Ashley Stimpson. They insist. Today's inspiration for flagging resilience comes from a place you might not expect. longreads.com/2025/10/02/t...

"The reason I always picked sunset to make these circular drives around the outerbelt is because as a commitment to my sometimes unwieldy romanticism, I surrender to the reality of the infinite catalog of sunsets." —Hanif Abdurraqib for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/10/23/g...

"They don’t confront us like mountains, comfort us like oceans, or envelop us like forests; they don’t seem to want to have anything to do with us at all. Swamps hide. Swamps demur." longreads.com/2025/10/02/t...

We’ve curated nearly 14,000 stories in the past 16 years and published hundreds of original pieces. Today, we’re kicking off a member drive to keep the stories coming. Won’t you join us? longreads.com/2025/10/15/2...

America has a fraught relationship with its liminal wetlands. For @longreads.com, Ashley Stimpson teaches us how to love a swamp. Read this and maybe you, too, will become a swamp person. longreads.com/2025/10/02/t...

"He was unwell, and fighting to give a performance all he had, and upon his collapse, an audience couldn’t tell the difference. They didn’t know what the joke was, or wasn’t, but they laughed." —Hanif Abdurraqib for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/09/11/l...

ICYMI, I spent my Sunday tracing the timeline on the mass withdrawals from the Polari Prize longlists over the inclusion of an author who calls himself a TERF who agrees with JK Rowling on trans issues. The number of authors pulling out is at 14 now. All of their books are linked to in my story.

Colwill Brown's We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is one of the best books I've read this year. @benreadsgood.bsky.social has a terrific, short, spoiler-free review that mirrors my thoughts and impressions about the book. Excellent characters and a strong plot. youtu.be/nl2V3H5e8qs?...

It's Christmas in July! Happy Booker Prize Longlist Day, everyone!

I picked this for Longreads last week. I can't stop thinking about it.

I love this piece from @lisawhitt.bsky.social. Happy 61st, Courtney!

My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: A lesson in first-person storytelling from @milehighrobert.bsky.social, @thelincoln.bsky.social in conversation with his book editor, and more... niemanstoryboard.org/2025/06/27/p... #longreads #journalism #booksky

"The truth is, we’re all scared. We’re all scarred and broken, and it isn’t from the stories we’ve read or music we’ve heard, but from what we see on the nightly news." @paulcrenstorm.bsky.social @theamscho.bsky.social theamericanscholar.org/jeremy-spoke...

Capra-Thomas explores opium, addiction, and ambition in this essay. I can't stop thinking about it since I read it yesterday.

What are our dreams trying to tell us? @kaseybwriter.bsky.social looks at the spaces between creativity and self-censorship in her new @longreads.com essay. longreads.com/2025/04/08/w...

Read an excerpt from the Booker-nominated "The Book of Disappearance" on WWB: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Presenting the #InternationalBooker2025 longlist. Find out more about all the books, authors and translators: thebookerprizes.com/ibp2025

Every editor should get to work with a writer that's as brave and fierce as @maggie-slepian.bsky.social. For @longreads.com, she recounts her struggles with food, what drove her to get treatment, and why there really is no such thing as a cure for eating disorders. longreads.com/2025/02/20/e...

The day after #DavidLynch died, @k-e-c.bsky.social visited the real #TwinPeaks. In times of grief, what do we get from stepping into places depicted in art? 📷: @sidehilling.bsky.social https://longreads.com/2025/01/30/real-twin-peaks-david-lynch/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social

Let's work together! (Full details, including starting rates, are below. ⬇️)

In our Weekly Top 5: * Dying to seek asylum in Canada (The Local) * The rise of UFC @rollingstone.com * Hoarding at the British Museum @theguardian.com * A mystery at Lake Tahoe @baynatureinstitute.bsky.social * Dog dialogue (NYT Mag) longreads.com/2025/01/24/t...

This week's top 5 #longreads: • Trader No’s? (@fastcompany.com) • Carnivorous curiosity (Alta Journal) • A meditation on power (Switchyard) • The overlooked sense of smell (@nautil.us) • Riding bulls in Manhattan (The Paris Review) longreads.com/2025/01/17/t...

Conjunction Junction is my absolute fave. Dig that groove!

A 🧵 of our most popular @longreads.com stories this year: longreads.com/2024/12/16/t...

I feel so fortunate to have read so many moving, thoughtful stories this year. Here's a handful of the ones that will stick with me.

Beautiful reflection on food, culture and family, in @longreads.com : longreads.com/2024/11/12/h...

Hey hey, Longreads is here! Follow along for curated editors' picks and thoughtful original essays and reported pieces. bsky.app/profile/long...

“I would like to dedicate this prize to everybody who does speak for and not against the earth, for and not against the dignity of other humans—other life—and all the people who speak for and call for and work for peace. This is for you. Thank you.” —Samantha Harvey youtu.be/VT6BZ6gyYYY?...

My wonderful publishers at Haymarket Books and I just made Hope in the Dark a free download for a week And yeah, I know I haven't been around much--three platforms is a lot, and I reach a lot of people on one and read a lot of key sources on the other. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/791-ho...

Music helps. I've love "Sculptor" by Jeffrey Martin. The chorus sends shivers down my spine. Great loss conveyed so simply: But you wrote a letter like a sculpture And I cried and let the day go I miss your breath on my shoulder I miss your breath on my shoulder youtu.be/g1tK8Ye7Be4?...

"Ghost stories always used to work like this: the ghost lingered because something was left undone, or because the living forgot something or someone that should not have been forgotten." @colindickey.com longreads.com/2023/10/26/s...

"We want to experience a big, cataclysmic, comprehensive change—a rip in the world—but we don’t want to be the reason for it." Jonah Walters' new Longreads essay explores volcanoes, earthquakes, and why we're attracted to disaster. longreads.com/2024/10/24/i...

I finished reading "Old God's Time" by Sebastian Barry last night and I am gutted. It's about trauma and abuse, and about how sometimes love just isn't enough. It's equal parts harrowing and stunningly beautiful. "The epic woman. Who had survived everything except survival."

Can now share, happily. Hope this pleases people. Publishers posted and it is on the online retailer sites. My new novel is called WRITTEN ON THE DARK and will be out May 25th. Can be pre-ordered at all the usual places. Here’s Cdn, is on US site too. www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/781834...

We're delighted to announce — with help from Electric Literature — the shortlist for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Congratulations to the authors! The recipient of this year's prize will be announced on Ursula's birthday, October 21st. electricliterature.com/announcing-t...

I am so grateful to finally get this one out — the in-depth story of Austin Lathlin-Bercier, the first Manitoban known to be killed in combat in Ukraine, and about a mother’s incredible love and trust in her son. www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...

The world is a lot these days. Reading poetry—intentionally making time for art—helps. Here's a poem by Brooklyn poet Liv Mammone. poets.org/poet/liv-mam...

We're thrilled to announce the selection panel for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction: Margaret Atwood Omar El Akkad Megan Giddings @megiddings.bsky.social Ken Liu @kenliu.bsky.social Carmen Maria Machado During April, you're welcome to nominate a book! See www.ursulakleguin.com/prize24

The saddest of all signs.

Throwing out a gift article for anyone who wants a rundown of Baldwin's works. Enjoy.

"They are ravenous and roving. Newly emerged...over a dozen larvae scale the crumpled paper towel inside a plastic cup. One undulates past the others to the paper peak. There, it anchors its hind prolegs, raises its head and abdomen, and begins a kind of dance." —Brian Payton for @hakaimagazine.com

Lisa Bubert on being a librarian: "The best security is to look people in the eye when they come in, say hello, give a nod that says I see you. To find out their name and give your name in return. To give grace because that’s all some of our people have."

Shall we play a game? I'll go first. Thread

Just finished The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff. An immersive, intense experience, start to finish. Absolute stunner of a book. I will never think about the wind in quite the same way, ever again. Also, I now have a fun new nickname for my little dog. "Thou paltry shrimp." 🤣

These sentences, from James McNaughton's Guernica essay "Flipping Grief," knocked me flat: "We stopped by Publix and rented a Rug Doctor. We signed a contract on the counter that said we would return it clean."

Really enjoyed this piece on willow caskets as an option for a green burial by Sarah Murphy at Ambrook Research.

A thoughtful new essay from @colindickey.com: "I care about ghost stories because I believe in them another possibility for storytelling, for understanding the past, and for processing grief. . .The ghost may not be a problem to solve. The ghost might be merely a gift." longreads.com/2023/10/26/s...

Good morning, I wrote you all a ghost story. It's about the movies Ghost & Ghostbusters, and NYC after a pandemic. I've spent the last 3 1/2 years writing this--it was one of the harder things I've written in quite some time, and I hope you enjoy it.