personal essays
Why I Don't Like Going to Bars as a Disabled Person
From inaccessible bathrooms to weird looks, drinking with your friends at a pub isn't such a piece of cake.
I’m Not as Unhinged as I Feel
When I am at the bottom of my psychic well, I seem to know how to love myself intuitively.
A Dispatch from the Depths of Anxiety: How Music Helps Me Connect to the Outside World
Ryan Wilson—the black metal mastermind behind The Howling Void and Pneuma Hagion—opens up about his dark battle with mental illness
Twenty Years On, “Drinking In LA” is Still the Ultimate Existential Slacker Anthem
Bran Van 3000's most famous song is so drunk that someone literally shouts “BEER!” in the second chorus.
Dear Students: A Letter from Your Muslim American Teacher
All the things I should've told my students about being a Muslim and a woman and an American.
My Father Was a Child Molester and I Put Him in Prison
As bad a man as my father is, I still struggle with the guilt of placing the man I loved and admired for so long into a cramped, violent cage.
Why Katherine Dunn's 'Geek Love' Was a Bible to Weird Kids Like Me
Katherine Dunn died this week, but her work—especially the incredible novel "Geek Love"—spoke to everyone who thought of themselves as an outsider or weirdo.
What Happens When a Pessimist Dates an Optimist
It's the end of the world, and I feel fine about feeling wretched. My girlfriend, not so much.
What It Was Like to Grow Up Fat
I asked my family what it was like to raise an overweight kid during the childhood obesity epidemic, but it seems no one noticed.
That Time as a Gay Guy When You Lose Your Girlfriends to Some Sham Like Marriage
The sad story of what happens when your girlfriend gets married or pregnant and can't snort poppers with you anymore.
Growing Up as the Daughter of a Real Housewife
In an exclusive excerpt from Danielle Staub's forthcoming memoir, her daughter, Christine, recounts her childhood as the daughter of one of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."
It Sucks to Be Sober in New Orleans
New Orleans is a land of temptation and sin, and it can be fucking hell if you're a recovering alcoholic.