“One year on from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s still too early to explain all the whys of that which has been taken from us. We still need to name the what—loved ones, but also jobs, relationships, big breaks, last chances—and the what is vast.”
loss
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 inArts & Culture, Culture, Essays & Criticism, Highlight, Nonfiction, Writing
Loving Molly, and Mourning Her: A Husband’s Extraordinary Essay
Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Highlight, Quote Posts
‘These Were His Mountains, After All’: Remembering One’s Father While Cycling in the Swiss Alps
James Jung thought he rode the winding narrow roads of the Alps to memorialize his dad. He was wrong.
Posted inEditor's Pick
I Know How to Cover a Portland Protest. So Why Am I Shaking?
Journalist Karina Brown, who’s covering the protests in Portland, writes a personal essay on trauma, sexual assault, and police violence.
Posted inCurrent Events, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
‘Who’s Going to Take Care of Me?’: When the Coronavirus Takes Both Parents
In the wake of their parents’ deaths, three siblings struggle to get through the day-to-day.
Posted inEditor's Pick
They Depended on Their Parents for Everything. Then the Virus Took Both.
Nash, Nadeen, and Nanssy Ismael struggle with the loss of their parents — while learning to pay bills, take care of themselves, and be a family.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Beneath the Black Rocks
“The same unknown that makes me nurse the thought of my mother’s death, makes me think of the loneliness of everyone who died of the virus. Their loved ones will carry the same wound I carry in my heart. For decades, for the rest of their lives they will be imagining the last moments of […]
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Grieving, but Calmed by a Different Kind of Storm
In isolation, Stephanie Land finds surprising relief from PTSD — and discovers she is able to write again.
Posted inEditor's Pick
I’ve Fled New York with My Wife, Kids and Dog – Just as my Ancestors Fled the 1918 Pandemic
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 and her oldest daughter died in the influenza epidemic of 1918.