“When I moved to Billtown, I worried most about whether fracking tainted groundwater. By the time I left the area, my biggest concern was whether the liberty granted to citizens to lease their land, or to otherwise act in ways that limits others’ access to environmental goods, taints democracy.”
book excerpt
Posted inNonfiction
Binders Full of Men
In an excerpt from her new book on fertility, feminism, and queer family-building, Jennifer Berney explores the possibilities of sperm banks.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
The Geography Closest In
In her new book, Miranda Ward explores the unique place of almost-motherhood — an uncertain landscape characterized by waiting, wanting, hoping, and not-knowing.
Posted inBooks, Design, Nonfiction, Story
The Powerful Decide
What makes good or bad design happen anywhere depends on who has the most power.
Posted inBooks, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story
The Grieving Landscape
Upon discovering that her mother had been a member of the group Women Strike For Peace (WSP), Heidi Hutner becomes obsessed with feminist nuclear history.
Posted inNonfiction
Your Wilderness Is Not Permanent
At an uncertain time in her life, Sejal Shah does Burning Man her own way.
Posted inStory
“The Leaky Vessel”: On Lewis Carroll and the Perils of Being Female
Rachel Vorona Cote on how the Victorian era’s restrictive prescriptions for acceptable female behavior pollute society to this day.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Kissed a Girl
Vickie Vértiz maneuvers her way around teenage love, friend envy, and being outed by her Mexican mother.
Posted inNonfiction
Demonology: A Woman’s Right to Fury
In an excerpt from her new book, Darcey Steinke investigates — and debunks — the demonization of anger within the female body.
Posted inNonfiction
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare
In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.