What Writers and Editors Are Reading: April 2023

Recommended by Rhaina Cohen: “Larissa MacFarquhar is a master of capturing moral and emotional complexity, and that ability is on full display in this piece that braids together the stories of three adoptees. Through their individual experiences, MacFarquhar teaches us about the giant, fraught adoption industry. I was blown away by her deep, compassionate reporting.”

Recommended by Chris Gayomali: “Lauren Larson dives into the mud pit of our country’s feral hog crisis and, naturally, the kooky, uniquely American micro-industry that’s emerged to try and solve it. (Often involving machine guns and helicopters.) What worthy adversaries!”

Recommended by Bilge Ebiri: “It’s wild to think that Bend It Like Beckham is 20 years old already. I remember enjoying it at the time, but Roxana Hadadi’s appreciation of the film, in which she argues that it’s really about ‘self-discovery’ and teen aspirations of freedom, made me see it in a new light—in part because so few movies since then have managed to deal artfully with the subjects Beckham explores.”

Recommended by B.D. McClay: “Conspiracy theorists believe a lot of things that aren’t true. The trouble is, so do the rest of us. ‘During my own lifetime, a formidable number of seemingly outrageous claims about American history, once relegated to the alternative media, have turned out, as documents were declassified and guilty parties spoke, to be simply true,’ writes Phil Christman in his perceptive study of how and why people get sucked into conspiratorial thinking. What should you do when you don’t want to fall down the rabbit hole, but have realized you have legitimate reasons not to trust certain authorities? There’s no easy answer here—but for clearly stating the problem, this essay is one to read.”

Recommended by Jaime Stathis: “This piece touches on so many facets of life: marriage, aging, body image, sex and vulnerability. This piece is brave and raw, and the writer did an extraordinary job crafting it.”

Recommended by Derek Robertson: “At Harper’s, Will Stephenson writes authoritatively on Charles Portis, one of the great, gnomic authors of the American South, finally getting his due in the canon with a Library of America collection. But don’t let that fool you—the collection, Portis, and this essay are anything but stuffy. Quit your job, get an oil change, change your life.”

Recommended by the author: “[Protest march, the present] ‘What do we want?’ ‘Global governance for AI!’ ‘When do we want it?’ ‘Now!’ ‘Scratch that. Six months ago!’”

Recommended by Gail Cornwall: “With a fresh vantage point and relentless attention to detail, Jay Kirk and The New York Times Magazine have produced one of the most stirring pieces of writing… ever.

Through the trauma of crime-scene investigators, Kirk begins to convey what we as a society have chosen to shroud: the visceral horror of gun violence. ‘It had fallen to him to empty the 20 lunchboxes. His advice to the small crew he brought in: Don’t read the notes..’ They tried not to notice ‘Pokémon cards and Little Mermaid this and that, stuff their own kids had at home. The Christmas projects the children had been working on for their parents. The drawings of stick-figure families huddled on the couch reading.’ But they had no choice but to process it all, for their jobs and for the families of the slain children of Sandy Hook: ‘Each small shirt. Each elfin dress. Each backpack. Each barrette.’”

Recommended by Eric Vilas-Boas: “Rachel Handler’s profile of a Broadway legend, whom she describes as having a ‘near-Shakespearean quotability and relish for calling a spade a son of a bitch’ is often hysterical, but it’s also a sly character study. Using vivid anecdotes and asides, Handler threads LuPone’s personality through that of her role in Beau Is Afraid to reveal what a consummate New Yorker she is—equal parts acidity and appeal.”