The Weekly Top 5: Our Picks and a Question for you

And now, over to you September 18, 2020 / View in your browser This week, in addition to our Weekly Top 5, we've got some selected archival pieces from Sarah Trent, Fayalita Hicks, Brendan Fitzgerald, and more.  We're going to keep the opening message short this week, because we'd like to pose a question to you, dear reader: Which book have you loved this year and why? How did this book make you feel? Did it change your worldview? Are scenes etched on your heart and mind, days, weeks, and months later? Fiction, nonfiction — we welcome your recommendations! Send us a note at hello@longreads.com. We'll share your responses in upcoming editions of the newsletter.   May you find quiet time to read this week. —KS Support Longreads Every dollar you contribute goes to writers who turn hours, weeks, and months of work into outstanding stories. Support them by joining Longreads today. Sign Up Burning Out Illustration by Brian Britigan Search and rescue teams train for the worst conditions. But the worst conditions are getting worse. Are they ready for the next big disaster? Read More Weekly Top 5 A CalFire firefighter uses a hand tool as he monitors a firing operation while battling the Tubbs Fire on October 12, 2017 near Calistoga, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Read Now 1. Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration Abrahm Lustgarten | ProPublica | September 15, 2020 | 24 minutes (6,133 words) “Wildfires rage in the West. Hurricanes batter the East. Droughts and floods wreak damage throughout the nation. Life has become increasingly untenable in the hardest-hit areas, but if the people there move, where will everyone go?” 2. A Pandemic, a Motel Without Power, and a Potentially Terrifying Glimpse of Orlando’s Future Greg Jaffe | The Washington Post | September 10, 2020 | 17 minutes (4,400 words) The economic collapse has pushed vulnerable families living in motels near Disney World to the brink. 3. A Close Reading of Randall Kenan, Who Paid Rare Attention to Black Complexity Omari Weekes, Elias Rodriques | LitHub | September 16, 2020 | 17 minutes (4,444 words) Omari Weekes and Elias Rodriques discuss the late writer and his work. 4. Fag Rag: The ’70s Paper Of Gay Political Revolution Jeremy Lybarger | Columbia Journalism Review | September 11, 2020 | 10 minutes (2,608 words) “Fag Rag wasn’t an idealistic publication; it didn’t suggest that a gay utopia was possible or even desirable. Instead, it pushed for a political revolution that wouldn’t come at the expense of other marginalized groups.” 5. Top Dog: An Oral History of “Wishbone” Cat Cardenas, Christian Wallace | Texas Monthly | September 16, 2020 | 32 minutes (8,100 words) “No one had ever done this before. No one had ever put a dog in the middle of the Civil War. How do you actually make that happen?” Sponsored by The Rona Jaffe Foundation Check Out the 2020 Award Winners The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards program was established by celebrated novelist Rona Jaffe in 1995. It was created to identify and support emerging women writers of exceptional promise. The Awards have helped many women build successful writing lives by offering encouragement and financial support at a critical time. Now in its twenty-sixth year, the Foundation has awarded grants to 164 outstanding writers for a total of more than $3 million. Noteworthy at Longreads The Danger of Desire Faylita Hicks considers what it means to be a Black nonbinary activist in the age of Trump — and questions how the social justice movement has changed the way they have sex. The Transfiguration of Paul Curreri For years, singer-songwriter Paul Curreri was a shouter of singular beauty. Then he went quiet — slowly, at first, then all of a sudden. Hand-Selected Reading   Giving Visibility to the Invisible: An Interview With Photographer Ruddy Roye “I want to introduce white America to people who they might never have met, and I want them to fall in love too.” Tramp Like Us Can an American family learn to become outdoorsy in New Zealand, where the natural world is part of the national DNA? Sort of. The Immigration-Obsessed, Polarized, Garbage-Fire Election of 1800 A madman versus a crook? Unexpected twists? Fake news? Welcome to the election of 1800. Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London How women writers and artists, from Virginia Woolf to Sophie Calle, found inspiration and freedom by navigating cities on foot. Read More Children are returning to school, but many are participating in class online, as the pandemic forces us to keep our distance from one another. As Dan Sinker writes for Esquire, the ever-present sounds of unmuted homes reveal the struggles of families trying to earn a living, trying to care for younger children, trying to just keep it together, while their kids attend class by Zoom.  "'Are you muted?' The first thing my five-year-old learned in kindergarten, set up at a tiny desk in the corner of our dining room, is to always stay muted. It's probably the wrong thing to teach a child, but not everyone remembers, and then life bleeds in. Zoom school becomes a portal into worlds you never see as a parent making awkward smalltalk at pickup. You can hear a mom working a job doing collections for medical billing. Call after call. A dad who calls his sister on speakerphone. They fight most days. Grandparents asking how long it’s going to take. There are babies wailing. Read the full piece.  Thanks for subscribing to Longreads! We'll send you the best storytelling from across the web, as well as Longreads Exclusives and Originals. 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