The Fourth Estate

Sheila Coronel on the Future of News Media

I don’t believe we’re confined to the media business models that we know. As the information landscape evolves, there will still be journalism about what is happening now, and that will help people in the future who are trying to make sense of it. This work has value.

Sleeping Children

What was happening in and to Gaza was not really about democracy at all—or any kind of universal, God-given values. It was simply about power.

The Dead of Dream Town

As the majority population of Dream Town, the dead hold all elective offices. They determine the hours of the municipal pool. (Midnight swimming!) They program traffic lights to operate on peculiar patterns: Some never turn red. Others never turn green.

Unruly

I’m rebellious, defiant, so I’m sent to the barn, driven there by my newly single mom, or my newly single dad, or my grandparents, or someone else. Another parent told my mom I should try horseback riding. Ice-skating and tae kwon do and ceramics didn’t stick, but I can already tell I’m a horse girl.

I Got You

“I’m your brother,” the man says, then swallows. He is tall and burly with deep-set blue eyes and thinning hair. He wipes his nose on his flannel sleeve and forks some coleslaw from a plastic container.

Butt-Dials

“How are you?” Janice asks her brother, because what do you say to someone you didn’t choose to call except the same thing you say to everyone?

A Thousand Words

A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

The Eulogy I Didn’t Give (V)

Are you writing his eulogy in advance? Are you afraid / to sleep at night? Afraid your bones are planning / their escape? And what do you mean by love? 

Love Language

I read somewhere that most men receive flowers / for the first time at their funeral. So I filled a vase / in your apartment with puckered roses

Lasciare Stare

My father took a puff from his Camel / and dispatched his message / in smoky cursive, Lasciare stare, / then said it again softly