Longreads

The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Neal Allen and Anne Lamott longreads.com/2026/03/18/que… via @longreads

"I’ve never been good at letting go. Look at the dogs now: sprawled, content, shrouded in frost and breath, and sorrow is punching me in the ribs. I can’t bear the thought that it won’t last." @BlairBraverman @NYTmag nytimes.com/2026/03/18/mag…

"Whatever I’ve been looking for in these books cannot really be accessed through ink and paper. It’s the kind of instruction I’ve only ever experienced through physical presence." Aria Aber for @yalereview: yalereview.org/article/aria-a…

"One also senses, at times, the subtle pain of an ambitious musician in a relentlessly plundered country." —David Beal for @nybooks nybooks.com/online/2026/03…

"Color is as much a part of our lives as air, water, and taxes. And it is maddeningly, beguilingly slippery." In a new excerpt from her forthcoming book, Kory Stamper details how her work @MerriamWebster launched her fascination with colors and the "dozens of overlapping concerns" that define them. longreads.com/2026/03/19/col…

"Israel’s new international college programs offer American students an escape from campus activism while training them as state cheerleaders." Maya Rosen for @JewishCurrents: jewishcurrents.org/degrees-of-sep…

"By searching that data and cross-referencing it with other public records, we identified what we believed to be the name Banksy took. It is one of the most popular names in Britain, so common it helps him hide in plain sight." @Reuters reuters.com/investigates/s…

In "Good Writing," @NealFAllen shares 36 tips to improve your sentences—and @ANNELAMOTT weighs in on each one. They bring that same dynamic to this week’s @longreads Questionnaire: longreads.com/2026/03/18/que… @penguinrandom

"'You should write about my life,' the bike thief said, as we rode under the freeway, trucks roaring above us. Maybe I will, I said."—@IainTreloar for @EscapeCycling #longreads escapecollective.com/?src=longreads

"If I had to fill out an application and it asked me what my job description was, I’d say my job is to play music that allows people to find more of themselves." Russell E. L. Butler in conversation with Jeff Mills for @PioneerWorks_: pioneerworks.org/broadcast/jeff…

"To local tribes, the scientists’ battle recalled pākehā fighting over access to Indigenous land—one of the oldest stories in New Zealand’s history." Sean Williams for Now Voyager: nowvoyagermag.com/reporting/bene…

"The most fundamental consequences of being struck by lightning are often metaphysical . . . How does falling victim to one of the most notoriously unlikely of all misfortunes reorient your sense of chance, of fate?" —Jacob Stern for @TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

"It was an encounter that started off well before veering profoundly off course." —@_jessebarron for @grantamag granta.com/transference-i…

"Though I don’t go to visit my mother’s grave, I like to think of the devil here, on a sunny hillside in a small town in Kansas visiting his son." Traci Brimhall for @VQR: vqronline.org/fall-2025/essa…

"I spoke to a playwright making $10,000 a month, a multitalented chemist who at various points found gigs demonstrating poker and singing for AI." @joshdzieza for @verge: theverge.com/cs/features/87…

"You could forget them in a closet, or you could embark on a quest, a trial of perseverance and devotion, ending in a cold and faraway stretch of ocean." — Maggie Shipstead for @nytimes @nytmag nytimes.com/2026/03/16/mag…

"That’s when things got weird. After his bingo, Cam drew the second blank plus EGLORV, giving him the opportunity for back-to-back bingos and a commanding lead." —Stefan Fatsis for @DefectorMedia defector.com/competitive-sc…

@RollingStone @Artforum @DefectorMedia @NewYorker @TexasMonthly Not yet a Longreads member? Join now to gain access to our weekly Top 5 (or to get it in your inbox), along with additional membership perks longreads.com/join/?utm_sour…

We've got your weekend reading ready! In this week's Top 5: • Lost soul (@rollingstone) • Copy that (@artforum) • Missing beats (@defectormedia) • Muzzled watchdogs (@newyorker) • Ramblin' man (@texasmonthly) longreads.com/2026/03/13/lon…

"Tonight, the spider will continue its lattice; tonight, the crystals will sprout spines, shredding my soft tissues." —Jan Steyn for @thedialmag thedial.world/articles/news/…