Katie Kosma

Read an introduction to the series. Jessica Lynne | Longreads | February 2020 | 10 minutes (2,737 words) Hive is a Longreads series about women and the music that has influenced them. * * * Much has been written about certain cities and their landscapes that conjure a particular sentimentality or feeling within those who live there or those who chose to visit. At times, the lore is so great that it overwhelms.

Chung Sung-Jun / Getty, Photo illustration by Katie Kosma Soraya Roberts | Longreads | February 2020 |  9 minutes (2,335 words) I used to think I was the only one who dealt with this particular existential crisis. It’s the one where every choice you make coincides with the torture of knowing that you didn’t choose something else. And that something else, by virtue of not being chosen, has infinite potential for being the right choice. It’s a fallacy, of course.

Flatiron Books / Illustration by Katie Kosma Sarah Menkedick | Longreads | February 2020 | 20 minutes (5,591 words) I first heard about American Dirt from Myriam Gurba’s scathing critique of the novel on Tropics of Meta. Her take immediately made sense, and it jolted me. Back in graduate school, I — a white, American woman — had written a novel about Mexico. I had lived there with my husband, Jorge, who is from Oaxaca, for five years. Many of our friends are Mexican; my extended family is Mexican.