The Sun Magazine
The Sun at the Mission Creek Festival Join us for three free events at the annual music and literature festival on Saturday, April 8, in Iowa City, Iowa Details

March 2023

News & Notes

Five Questions for Five Decades

March Writer Spotlight: Heather Sellers

March 21, 2023

Five Questions for Five Decades

March Reader Spotlight: Makafane Tšepang Ntlamelle

March 21, 2023
All news & notes
The Sun Interview

The Strong, Silent Type

Jaclyn A. Siegel On Masculinity And Male Body Image

Risak: How is the “masculine body” defined?

Siegel: In the U.S. we typically see a mesomorphic ideal: lean, muscular, and with a low body-fat percentage. This is persistent across the U.S. and common in LGBTQ+ communities in particular. Sexual-minority men are at elevated risk for eating disorders due in part to the lean ideal being perpetuated in their communities.

By Sam Risak
Fiction

The Den Mother Has Her Say

Before we eat our snow cones, pet this dog. Don’t expect to earn a Wolf badge for your troubles. . . . Move slowly down the back, like you’re taking your fingers on a trip, until you get to the bulge on the haunch. Yes, it’s a tumor. Yes, it’s cancerous. Pet it like it’s nothing special, just part of the dog.

By Lance Larsen
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Sparrow’s Guide To Business

When you walk on sand, you leave footprints. When you work, you leave “workprints.” The people who come behind you will judge you by your workprints.

By Sparrow
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

The End Of The World

Maybe the end of the world wasn’t fire and explosions and lawlessness and bodies in the streets. Maybe the end of the world was some smaller thing.

By Richard Scott Larson
Readers Write

Drug Experiences

Mushrooms in the desert, pot on a family vacation, black hash on a nuclear submarine

By Our Readers