Personal Histories
Stories of life, curated for The New Yorker’s centenary.
The Deaths—and Lives—of Two Sons
The truth is that however I choose to express myself will not live up to the weight of these facts: Vincent died, and then James died.
How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda
Immigrant struggles in America forged a bond that became even tighter after my mother’s A.L.S. diagnosis. Then, as COVID-19 threatened, Chinese nationalists began calling us traitors to our country.
The Musk Ox and Me
How a summer spent tracking elusive animals in Alaska led to a lifetime on the road.
My Mother’s Dreams for Her Son, and All Black Children
She longed for black people in America not to be forever refugees—confined by borders that they did not create and by a penal system that killed them before they died.
Father Time
I can’t predict what’s waiting for us, lurking on the other side of our late middle age, but I know it can’t be good.
Moving On, a Love Story
To move into the Apthorp was to enter a state of giddy, rent-stabilized delirium.
The Fourth State of Matter
A writer tends a dying dog, a failing marriage, and a nest of squirrels as a campus shooting shatters her small universe.
This summary is AI-generated.
