In this reported personal essay, Michael Wolff writes about watching his mother “dwindle” painfully between life and death — not well enough to live on her own in her final years, without tremendous intervention from her family and doctors, but not sick enough to just quickly die. He makes a convincing case against the medical establishment’s […]
Essays & Criticism
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion
A reported, scientific essay in which physician and author Siddhartha Mukherjee considers the body’s proclivity for homeostasis, which kept his elderly father’s failing body alive for longer than seemed to make sense, after he had begun failing, and falling.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Dance Me to the End of Love
In this personal essay, Abigail Rasminsky looks back on the youthful days she trained to become a professional dancer — and the injury that put an end to her dreams.
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What to Do With a Man Who Has a Story, and a Gun
In a personal essay about the naivete of young love, Lisa Romeo recalls her first college romance, when she was willing to overlook a lot — until she wasn’t.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Portrait of the Artist as a Single Mom
In this personal essay, created with support from the non-profit Economic Hardship Reporting Project, Stephanie Land chronicles her struggle to support herself and her two daughters while attending college and trying to make a living as a writer.
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Daughter Died, But I’m Still Mothering Her
In this personal essay, Jacqueline Dooley recalls her difficult transition from being a mother with earthly duties, to becoming one with more spiritual concerns for a teenage daughter with terminal cancer.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Fake This Marriage
As part of The Awl’s excellent “Fakes” series, Kelly Stout chronicles her life as an “ACOD” (adult child of divorce) in the wake of her parents’ 2011 acrimonious split when she was in her early 20s, and tries to make sense of the lie her parents and family are no longer living.
Posted inEditor's Pick
This is How You Say Goodbye
A personal essay in which, after losing two brothers and a cousin in a short amount of time, Lillian Slugocki tries to make sense of death — and life in the wake of others’ passing.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Muslim, a Christian, and a Baby Named ‘God’
A personal essay in which Rachel Jones, a Christian American living in Djibouti, reflects on her friendship with a Muslim woman there, and the more universal aspects of faith.
Posted inEditor's Pick
In Praise of Cowardice
A humorous personal essay in which Emily Meg Weinstein considers the ways in which her grandfather’s less than heroic choices in love and war led to her existence.