A father’s disappearance, dark family secrets, and the hunt for Bigfoot.
fathers
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Dad, the Demigod
“Henry Wismayer lost his dad to cancer at the age of four. He thinks through the ways it has shaped his life.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Off Camera
“So I tiptoed through life, aware that my obsessive enthusiasm could set people off like a bomb.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
For the Love of Losing
“I began to wonder if running off with a blackjack team…wasn’t my way of throwing down the gauntlet to my father…who had gambled all his life.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Parting the Waters
“Generations of family memories wash away in Silver Falls.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Fighting the Tree
“Maybe I wasn’t the son Dad wanted. Maybe, if he could have, he would have picked another kid, a son he could enjoy parenting.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Extraordinary Circumstances
Kenneth Watkins’s son, Kenny, was 6 days old when he was taken away by ACS, New York City’s child-welfare agency. Kenny was then placed with an affluent foster family. To regain custody, Watkins had to prove that being poor didn’t make him a bad father. Despite Watkins’ constant efforts, it took years to get Kenny […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Bees In My Brain
“I’d sometimes wonder if my dad had bees of his own. Little creatures that spoke to him in his native tongue, telling him he wasn’t good enough, too.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Kitchen Dad
“Place the oyster on a bed of ice and go to the next one. It’s possible to refine this technique to perfection. Like changing a diaper.”
Posted inNonfiction
Carrying Histories of Protest
Jaquira Díaz witnesses her father’s rebellious fight for a better life, and her homeland’s fight for its place in the world.