Krista Stevens
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kristastevens.bsky.social
Krista Stevens
@kristastevens.bsky.social
Senior Editor at Longreads. Loves books, birds, bass, and guitar. 🇨🇦
"When the song closes, when the poem closes, when the day closes, you are not obligated to be who you were at the start, but who you were at the start does matter."

Hanif Abdurraqib is back at @longreads.com, this time remembering Sade's second album, Promise.

longreads.com/2025/11/20/s...
40 Years Later: Sade, “Promise” - Longreads
"Promise" isn’t necessarily about love, or even about surrender, but about giving your heart over, repeatedly, and enduring the failures that come with the exchange.
longreads.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Started my day with "T Shot #9: Ode to My Sharps Container," a beautiful poem by KB Brookins. Here's how it starts:

"Holder of loose blood. Taker of contraptions
I use when I’m brave enough to save myself.
Visual reminder that I can do it. . ."

www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
T Shot #9: Ode to My Sharps Container
Taker of contraptions I use when I’m brave enough to save myself. Former container of pickles so you smell like sour victory. Every interaction at the coffee shop, on the phone with medical providers,...
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
America's liminal wetlands don't just persist, writes Ashley Stimpson. They insist. Today's inspiration for flagging resilience comes from a place you might not expect.

longreads.com/2025/10/02/t...
Swamp People - Longreads
Finding refuge and resilience in America’s most reviled landscapes.
longreads.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:21 PM
"The reason I always picked sunset to make these circular drives around the outerbelt is because as a commitment to my sometimes unwieldy romanticism, I surrender to the reality of the infinite catalog of sunsets." —Hanif Abdurraqib for @longreads.com

longreads.com/2025/10/23/g...
30 Years Later: Groove Theory, “Groove Theory” - Longreads
"Groove Theory" tries to make the work of staying in love feel as easy as possible, even when it isn’t.
longreads.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
"They don’t confront us like mountains, comfort us like oceans, or envelop us like forests; they don’t seem to want to have anything to do with us at all. Swamps hide. Swamps demur."

longreads.com/2025/10/02/t...
Swamp People - Longreads
Finding refuge and resilience in America’s most reviled landscapes.
longreads.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
We’ve curated nearly 14,000 stories in the past 16 years and published hundreds of original pieces. Today, we’re kicking off a member drive to keep the stories coming.

Won’t you join us?

longreads.com/2025/10/15/2...
Announcing Our 2025 Member Drive - Longreads
It's easy to think that thoughtful longform journalism is an endangered species. We refuse to believe that—and we need your help.
longreads.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:52 PM
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...
Swamp People - Longreads
Finding refuge and resilience in America’s most reviled landscapes.
longreads.com
October 3, 2025 at 5:27 PM
"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...
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.
longreads.com
September 11, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
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.
Mass revolt from queer authors in the UK after a major LGBTQ+ writing prize longlisted a self-proclaimed TERF.

11 authors and 2 judges have withdrawn from the Polari Prize. One of those withdrawals, that of June Thomas, is newly confirmed by our reporter, @evanurquhart.bsky.social.

Read more here:
Queer Authors Withdraw From Writing Prize En Masse Over Inclusion of Self-Proclaimed TERF — Assigned
A UK LGBTQ+ writing prize seems to be crumbling as the queer community protests the inclusion of an anti-trans writer on the long list. Trans prisoners in Georgia accuse the state of cruel and unusual...
www.assignedmedia.org
August 11, 2025 at 7:11 PM
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?...
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown | Spoiler-free book review 📖
YouTube video by Ben Reads Good
youtu.be
August 5, 2025 at 7:57 PM
It's Christmas in July! Happy Booker Prize Longlist Day, everyone!
We are delighted to reveal the #BookerPrize2025 longlist – 13 books ‘all alive with great characters and narrative surprises’.

Huge congratulations to the authors who make up this year's Booker Dozen.

➡️ Discover the full list: thebookerprizes.com/bp2025
July 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
I picked this for Longreads last week. I can't stop thinking about it.
July 14, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I love this piece from @lisawhitt.bsky.social. Happy 61st, Courtney!
July 9, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
Reposted by Krista Stevens
"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...
Jeremy Spoke in Class Today - The American Scholar
On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake
theamericanscholar.org
June 16, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Capra-Thomas explores opium, addiction, and ambition in this essay. I can't stop thinking about it since I read it yesterday.
Today at Longreads, Caylin Capra-Thomas writes about Sublime and the sublime, Bradley Nowell and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, addiction and loss and recovery, what we yearn for and what limits we touch longreads.com/2025/05/22/s...
On (the) Sublime - Longreads
When we reach for our limits, what is it that we ultimately grasp?
longreads.com
May 22, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
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...
April 8, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
Read an excerpt from the Booker-nominated "The Book of Disappearance" on WWB: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...
February 26, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
Presenting the #InternationalBooker2025 longlist.

Find out more about all the books, authors and translators: thebookerprizes.com/ibp2025
February 25, 2025 at 2:48 PM
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...
Present Tense: The Long Shadow of an Eating Disorder  - Longreads
Eating disorders never truly go away. They just go quiet. For awhile.
longreads.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
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
David Lynch Was Here: A Visit to the Real Twin Peaks - Longreads
Notes from the Northwest on mourning, remembrance, and black coffee.
longreads.com
January 30, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Let's work together! (Full details, including starting rates, are below. ⬇️)
January 29, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
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
Showcasing stories from Fatima Syed, Jack Crosbie, Charlotte Higgins, Sonya Bennett-Brandt, and Camille Bromley.
longreads.com
January 24, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Krista Stevens
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...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
Recommending excellent stories by Clint Rainey, Blythe Roberson, Mya Frazier, Katy Kelleher, and Jasper Nathaniel.
longreads.com
January 17, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Conjunction Junction is my absolute fave. Dig that groove!
52 years ago today, School House Rock made its debut on ABC.

Have you ever wondered who the voice was behind your favorite School House Rock songs?

Meet Jack Sheldon performing a live rendition of Conjunction Junction.
January 6, 2025 at 8:59 PM