Essays

Essays

The Unfolding of Time in Paint

My encounters with Joan Mitchell's panels
Rachel Cohen
Sepia toned photograph showing painter Joan Mitchell behind a canvas in her studio
Memoir

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

I worked for the novelist in her final months. I thought she wanted to kill me.
Elena Gosalvez Blanco
A Closer Read

Taking Offense

Reading through bad feeling
Garth Greenwell
Essays

How Mrs. Dalloway Began

Slipping into Virginia Woolf’s sentences
Edmund de Waal
Essays

When Does a Divorce Begin?

Most people think of it as failure. For me it was an achievement.
Anahid Nersessian
Dan Fox as a child with his nain, or grandmother, in the chicken-filled yard of Siambr Wen, near Llanrwst, North Wales, UK
Essays

What Happened When I Began to Speak Welsh

By learning my family's language, I hoped to join their conversation.
Dan Fox

Browse

Essays

Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

How I Became a Prophetess

Joyelle McSweeney
June 9, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Why Does Every Ad on TV Sound Exactly the Same?

How “In these uncertain times” became ad agencies’ favorite slogan
Ben Purkert
June 9, 2020
The author with her brother, 1999.
Essays

After My Brother

Finding the language of loss
Brianna Zimmerman
June 1, 2020
Photograph of clock at Grand Central Station. Robert Hoge / Creative Commons
Essays

Temps

The law of entropy and life as a fill-in employee, and girlfriend
Victoria Kornick
June 1, 2020
A Black woman raises her fist at a protest against police violence. Joyce by Miki J / Creative Commons
Essays

The Uses of Memory

Ecstasy in the midst of struggle
Roger Reeves
June 1, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Lives or Livelihoods

Zimbabwe’s hospitals are woefully unequipped for the pandemic, but the nation’s citizens can’t afford to stay inside.
Khameer Kidia
May 20, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

The Profound Horror of the Mass Grave

If funerals show a society’s endurance, ours is coming apart
Kathryn Lofton
May 19, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

A Commencement Deferred

While sheltering in place, a graduating student reconnects with her immigrant family
Meghana Mysore
May 18, 2020
Pandemic Files

The Children Know

When my father died of AIDS, he couldn’t shield me from his pain
Emily Ziff Griffin
May 14, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

History is Another Word for Trauma

When Covid takes a woman who has survived so much, all we can do is listen, and learn
Rachel Jamison Webster
May 11, 2020