Krista Stevens

Swamp People - Longreads Finding refuge and resilience in America’s most reviled landscapes.

America has a fraught relationship with its liminal wetlands. For @longreads.com, Ashley Stimpson teaches us how to love a swamp. Read this and maybe you, too, will become a swamp person.

longreads.com/2025/10/02/t...

20 Years Later: Little Brother, “The Minstrel Show“ - Longreads Like minstrelsy, Little Brother’s album shows you one hand, convinces you of one thing, while something else works behind the scenes.

"He was unwell, and fighting to give a performance all he had, and upon his collapse, an audience couldn’t tell the difference. They didn’t know what the joke was, or wasn’t, but they laughed." —Hanif Abdurraqib for @longreads.com

longreads.com/2025/09/11/l...

ICYMI, I spent my Sunday tracing the timeline on the mass withdrawals from the Polari Prize longlists over the inclusion of an author who calls himself a TERF who agrees with JK Rowling on trans issues.

The number of authors pulling out is at 14 now. All of their books are linked to in my story.

YouTube video by Ben Reads Good We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown | Spoiler-free book review 📖

Colwill Brown's We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is one of the best books I've read this year. @benreadsgood.bsky.social has a terrific, short, spoiler-free review that mirrors my thoughts and impressions about the book. Excellent characters and a strong plot. youtu.be/nl2V3H5e8qs?...

It's Christmas in July! Happy Booker Prize Longlist Day, everyone!

I picked this for Longreads last week. I can't stop thinking about it.

Likewise+++!

I love this piece from @lisawhitt.bsky.social. Happy 61st, Courtney!

Putting the ‘I’ in storytelling - Nieman Storyboard In reporting about psilocybin, Robert Sanchez reveals his own story. Plus: True Story Award, Roy Peter Clark, and the Liang-Zhou Nieman Fellowship

My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: A lesson in first-person storytelling from @milehighrobert.bsky.social, @thelincoln.bsky.social in conversation with his book editor, and more...

niemanstoryboard.org/2025/06/27/p...

#longreads #journalism #booksky

Jeremy Spoke in Class Today - The American Scholar On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake

"The truth is, we’re all scared. We’re all scarred and broken, and it isn’t from the stories we’ve read or music we’ve heard, but from what we see on the nightly news."

@paulcrenstorm.bsky.social @theamscho.bsky.social

theamericanscholar.org/jeremy-spoke...

Capra-Thomas explores opium, addiction, and ambition in this essay. I can't stop thinking about it since I read it yesterday.

Quote: "'Live and let live,' some say when they catch a spider to release it outside unsquished. It does not feel like enough." Tagline: —Kasey Butcher Santana, "In Defense of Spiders" A logo in the top right reads “Longreads”

What are our dreams trying to tell us? @kaseybwriter.bsky.social looks at the spaces between creativity and self-censorship in her new @longreads.com essay.

longreads.com/2025/04/08/w...

Read an excerpt from the Booker-nominated "The Book of Disappearance" on WWB: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Presenting the #InternationalBooker2025 longlist.

Find out more about all the books, authors and translators: thebookerprizes.com/ibp2025

Present Tense: The Long Shadow of an Eating Disorder  - Longreads Eating disorders never truly go away. They just go quiet. For awhile.

Every editor should get to work with a writer that's as brave and fierce as @maggie-slepian.bsky.social.

For @longreads.com, she recounts her struggles with food, what drove her to get treatment, and why there really is no such thing as a cure for eating disorders.

longreads.com/2025/02/20/e...

David Lynch Was Here: A Visit to the Real Twin Peaks - Longreads Notes from the Northwest on mourning, remembrance, and black coffee.

The day after #DavidLynch died, @k-e-c.bsky.social visited the real #TwinPeaks.

In times of grief, what do we get from stepping into places depicted in art?

📷: @sidehilling.bsky.social

https://longreads.com/2025/01/30/real-twin-peaks-david-lynch/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social

Let's work together! (Full details, including starting rates, are below. ⬇️)

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads Showcasing stories from Fatima Syed, Jack Crosbie, Charlotte Higgins, Sonya Bennett-Brandt, and Camille Bromley.

In our Weekly Top 5:

* Dying to seek asylum in Canada (The Local)
* The rise of UFC @rollingstone.com
* Hoarding at the British Museum @theguardian.com
* A mystery at Lake Tahoe @baynatureinstitute.bsky.social
* Dog dialogue (NYT Mag)

longreads.com/2025/01/24/t...

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads Recommending excellent stories by Clint Rainey, Blythe Roberson, Mya Frazier, Katy Kelleher, and Jasper Nathaniel.

This week's top 5 #longreads:

• Trader No’s? (@fastcompany.com)
• Carnivorous curiosity (Alta Journal)
• A meditation on power (Switchyard)
• The overlooked sense of smell (@nautil.us)
• Riding bulls in Manhattan (The Paris Review)

longreads.com/2025/01/17/t...

Conjunction Junction is my absolute fave. Dig that groove!

Our Most Popular Stories of the Year - Longreads Our 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2024.

A 🧵 of our most popular @longreads.com stories this year:
longreads.com/2024/12/16/t...

I feel so fortunate to have read so many moving, thoughtful stories this year. Here's a handful of the ones that will stick with me.

The Kitchen with Two Doors - Longreads On the insatiable hunger for belonging.

Beautiful reflection on food, culture and family, in @longreads.com : longreads.com/2024/11/12/h...

Hey hey, Longreads is here! Follow along for curated editors' picks and thoughtful original essays and reported pieces.

bsky.app/profile/long...

YouTube video by The Booker Prizes Samantha Harvey wins the Booker Prize 2024 with Orbital | The Booker Prize

“I would like to dedicate this prize to everybody who does speak for and not against the earth, for and not against the dignity of other humans—other life—and all the people who speak for and call for and work for peace. This is for you. Thank you.” —Samantha Harvey

youtu.be/VT6BZ6gyYYY?...

Hope in the Dark Bestselling author Rebecca Solnit reminds us that activism has changed the world in remarkable ways.

My wonderful publishers at Haymarket Books
and I just made Hope in the Dark a free download for a week And yeah, I know I haven't been around much--three platforms is a lot, and I reach a lot of people on one and read a lot of key sources on the other. www.haymarketbooks.org/books/791-ho...

YouTube video by OurVinyl Jeffrey Martin - Sculptor | OurVinyl Sessions

Music helps. I've love "Sculptor" by Jeffrey Martin. The chorus sends shivers down my spine. Great loss conveyed so simply:

But you wrote a letter like a sculpture
And I cried and let the day go
I miss your breath on my shoulder
I miss your breath on my shoulder

youtu.be/g1tK8Ye7Be4?...

Signs of Ghosts - Longreads What do we do when there are whole cities full of ghosts, each one with their own unique story to tell, each one with something left undone?

"Ghost stories always used to work like this: the ghost lingered because something was left undone, or because the living forgot something or someone that should not have been forgotten." @colindickey.com

longreads.com/2023/10/26/s...

The Rip in the World - Longreads On volcanoes, earthquakes, and our attraction to disaster.

"We want to experience a big, cataclysmic, comprehensive change—a rip in the world—but we don’t want to be the reason for it."

Jonah Walters' new Longreads essay explores volcanoes, earthquakes, and why we're attracted to disaster.

longreads.com/2024/10/24/i...

I finished reading "Old God's Time" by Sebastian Barry last night and I am gutted. It's about trauma and abuse, and about how sometimes love just isn't enough. It's equal parts harrowing and stunningly beautiful.

"The epic woman. Who had survived everything except survival."