At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
The Marshall Project
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Reads from Zefyr Lisowski, David Gessner, Susie Cagle, Brendan I. Koerner, and Athena Aktipis and Coltan Scrivner.
In Harm’s Way
“How decades-old decisions to build two California prisons in a dry lakebed and a chaotic climate left 8,000 incarcerated people at risk.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Keri Blakinger, Zhengyang Wang, Marian Bull, Mark Synnott, and Clover Hope.
When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row
“’I’m in,’ Wardlow said. And so Arthaxx, his character, opened his eyes.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our Top 5 stories of the week from Maurice Chammah, Benoît Morenne, Amanda Gefter, Jane Miller, and Cheryl Katz and our first-ever audience award.
The Mercy Workers
“For three decades, a little-known group of ‘mitigation specialists’ has helped save death-penalty defendants by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, our editors recommend stories by Eric Borsuk, Aaron Gell, Laurie Penny, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Will Rees.
How to Save True Crime: A Reading List of Wrongful Conviction Stories
Stories about wrongful convictions open our eyes to systemic injustices in the U.S. court system. Maurice Chammah, a staff writer at The Marshall Project, compiles his recommended longreads within the genre.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Maurice Chammah, Jeff Weiss, Rasha Elass, Danielle Tcholakian, and Lila Shapiro.