With nothing left to share, everything circles back to here:

Applications are now open for the 2026 Dana Wood Chaney Writers Fund.

This grant awards $1500 toward any StoryStudio class or program to a writer whose work addresses social change.

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#writingcommunity

Why young girls are disguised as boys in Afghanistan The Taliban has released a video of an interrogation of a girl who passed as a boy. It's an age-old practice in this patriarchal society but now appears to be happening with some frequency.

Girls dressed as boys has been documented for centuries in the patriarchal society of Afghanistan. It even has a term: a girl who disguises her gender is called a bacha posh — literally “dressing like a boy.” Learn more here: https://bit.ly/40U0f4w

The Void Would Very Much Like You to Stop Screaming Into It Hey. It’s me. The Void. We need to talk. I know I don’t usually say anything. I know this is usually a one-way street, and you’re used to that. You...

"So, I’m asking you, as someone who loves you—stop it. Stop the screaming. Be proactive about your life. Go do something about it."

Jung Yun on Writing a Post-9/11 Cruise Novel All the World Can Hold is both emotionally bold and granular, as it captures the experience of the 9/11 attacks 25 years ago.  Jung Yun, author of Shelter and O Beautiful, drew upon personal experi…

@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Jun Yun, author of All The World Can Hold, about writing a post 9/11 cruise novel.

A cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad. #NewYorkerCartoons

See more from this week’s issue: newyorkermag.visitlink.me/78Lq3u

From the Boston Fire Dept.: "In case you hear a loud noise in the Roxbury neighborhood near John Elliot Square . There will be a cannon firing display on Saturday March 7th between 2:15 - 2:45 . Honoring Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery as part of Boston’s 250th anniversary celebrations."

Scandal, Protest, Goofiness, and Grandeur at the U.S. Bicentennial This year marks the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the nation’s founding. The two hundredth wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.

On July 4, 2026, Congress is scheduled to bury a time capsule that is to be opened by the President on July 4, 2276, the nation’s 500th anniversary. Will there still be a President? A United States? A habitable planet?
newyorkermag.visitlink.me/FaFGDW

When did Southie get richy-rich? - The Boston Globe What happened to working-class South Boston? It went the way of ‘Good Will Hunting.’

Today's Starting Point explains how South Boston emerged as the city's second richest neighborhood.

Editor Bill Marx reviews "Ghosts" at The Gamm Theatre: Director Tony Estrella’s version of Ibsen’s modern tragedy carves out an energetic path — the action moves along with compelling alacrity.

artsfuse.org/325171/theat...

The Tyranny of the Relationship Gap Age gaps, swag gaps, woke gaps—where does it end?

Gone are the days when age was the only point of controversy—now people are on the lookout for all sorts of gaps between partners, some more superficial than others, Faith Hill writes:

Elias Khoury, The Art of Fiction No. 233 “What’s a revolution? It’s when a regime can no longer control the populace, when the regime is brought down to the ground.”

“Repetition is, I might say, a way of insisting that every story contains many stories inside it.” —Elias Khoury

Supreme Court could greenlight geofence warrants A new case may legalize suspicionless mass surveillance of journalists and whistleblowers

A free press can’t exist in a surveillance state.

Geofence warrants allow the government to collect location data on everyone, including journalists and whistleblowers.

A Supreme Court case could make it worse.

Here’s how.

Dennis Cooper, The Art of Fiction No. 213 “I think pornography is a very rich medium, and I’ve studied it closely and learned quite a lot as a writer from it.”

“I realize it’s very difficult to get people not to think of characters in novels as their text-based friends, but a lot of misunderstanding is eliminated if they don’t.” —Dennis Cooper

The best intentions can inspire lies, and alter lives.

The AI Prompt I Used to Write My Self-Published Memoirs I need you to write a memoir of my life as an obscure literary genius. Make it a multi-volume set, kind of like Casanova’s. Basically, the drama an...

"Make it clear that I am more talented and way better-dressed than Jonathan Greenbaum, the guy who stole my girlfriend back in college." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...

“Beloved,” it’s worth mentioning, did not win the National Book Award in 1987 — but who remembers “Paco’s Story?”

Is it hypocritical for news publishers to complain about tech companies’ platforms — but still be on them? Or is it just an acknowledgement that their interests sometimes align?

Despite the profound asymmetry in their relationships with platforms, news companies still feed those beasts. www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/is-i...

In raid on journalist, Apple’s Lockdown Mode blocks FBI Lockdown Mode is not just for dealing with remote malware — it also appears to shut down some forensic devices.

Investigators could not copy data stored on an iPhone seized in the FBI raid on a @washingtonpost.com reporter’s home because Apple’s Lockdown Mode was enabled, court documents reveal.

Read our digital security team’s analysis in our newsletter, and subscribe.

What Happens When Your Books (Don’t) Get Banned? When a friend wrote to me some months ago that he’d heard a book of mine had been banned, I felt a surge of excitement. I’m not proud of this. The banning of a book is hardly a badge of literary me…

Lydia Millet on censorship, creativity, and what happens when your books don’t get banned.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Crime Reading the news, you’d think that crime is something naturally occurring, universally observable, and perhaps a little bit subjective, like a groundhog’s opinion of seasonal change. This arises fr…

@galvinalmanza.bsky.social examines how media obscures the truth about crime and safety.

🎥⭐️🎬 Remember the name Moses Sibley from Mattapan. At just 18 years old, he’s made four documentaries. He balances filmmaking with being a high school senior, attending Lincoln-Sudbury through the METCO program. Can’t wait to see what the future holds for you Moses!

200 love letters found in a Nashville home tell story of couple's courtship during WWII The letters by William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean were donated in 2016 to the Metro Nashville Archives.

200 love letters found in a Nashville home tell story of couple's courtship during WWII | Click on the image to read the full story

Anyone can enter our “Cover Story” competition. Share this post with any budding designers among your friends and family. The three best entries will receive a prize econ.st/4bTMrxO

A Terrifying Scam and the System That Made It Possible Product-liability lawsuits can bring justice for people harmed by corporate failure. But a complicated, opaque process provides opportunities for con artists.

Product-liability lawsuits can bring justice for people harmed by corporate failure. But a complicated, opaque process provides opportunities for con artists. www.newyorker.com/books/under-...

Even the Hospitals Aren’t Safe in Iran As the regime imposes a forced forgetting of the massacres in January, it has begun targeting not only wounded protesters but medical workers, who have borne witness to some of the worst atrocities.

As the Iranian regime imposes a forced forgetting of the massacres in January, it has begun targeting not only wounded protesters but medical workers, who have borne witness to some of the worst atrocities. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Why Tennyson Feels So Modern He was the ultimate Victorian poet. But his interest in psychology—and madness—anticipated another age.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the ultimate Victorian poet, but his interest in psychology—and madness—anticipated another age, James Parker argues:

A postcard arrived: ‘If you’re reading this I’m dead, and I really liked you’ Don Glickman’s daughter sent his favorite people the postcard he designed before his death.

A student received a posthumous postcard from his former professor, Don Glickman, who was known for his humor. He instructed his daughter to send over 100 postcards.

The gesture went viral and reflected Glickman's unique approach to life and death.

How to Portray a Wildly Unequal Society Daniyal Mueenuddin’s new novel shows that living in a highly stratified country damages both the rich and the poor.

In his novel about grand feudal families and their employees in Pakistan, Daniyal Mueenuddin attempts to bring together the stories of people whose lives rarely intersect in meaningful ways, writes Karan Mahajan:

Salman Rushdie, The Art of Fiction No. 186 “A story doesn’t have to be simple, it doesn’t have to be one-dimensional but, especially if it’s multidimensional, you need to find the clearest, most engaging way of telling it.”

“How do you make people see that everyone’s story is now a part of everyone else’s story? It’s one thing to say it, but how can you make a reader feel that is their lived experience?” —Salman Rushdie