Smoking in the girls’ room, sneaking a drink, napping
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We hope you’ll enjoy these featured selections from the past twelve months, chosen by our readers and staff. If you missed the pieces when they appeared in the magazine or want to read them again, just click the links below. Our thanks to everyone who took time to let us know about the stories, poems, essays, and interviews they loved. (To send your own letter to the editor, click here.)
The Power Of Story: Jared Seide On How Listening To Each Other Can Restore Our Humanity Interview by Hazel Kight Witham, June 2020
Read Seide’s recommended reading list here. To learn more about the practices he describes in the interview, check out his latest book, Where Compassion Begins.
Night Cows By Jennifer Bowen Hicks, August 2020
Hicks was recently awarded a Pushcart Prize for her essay in The Sun. To read her other pieces from the magazine, click here.
White Folks By John Holman, September 2020
Read associate editor Finn Cohen’s Q&A with Holman, “The Best Thing about Fiction,” here.
Les Calanques By Melissa Febos, September 2020
Febos’s piece is included in her best-selling essay collection Girlhood, released this spring.
Love Poem By Brionne Janae, October 2020
To read more of Janae’s poems in The Sun, click here.
Something I Might Say By Stephanie Austin, February 2021
Austin is an Arizona-based fiction and memoir writer. This is her first piece in The Sun.
This Mortal Coil: Sheldon Solomon On How Fear Of Death Affects Our Lives Interview by Deborah Golden Alecson, April 2021
After reading this interview, one reader shared that he’s adopted Solomon’s closing lines — “Be humble. Be grateful. It’s good for you. It’s good for the world.” — as his daily mantra.
My Late Breast By Kathryn Jordan, April 2021
Read editorial assistant Staci Kleinmaier’s Q&A with Jordan, “What Poetry Can Do,” here. (Also included is a video of Jordan reading her poem.)
The Quiet Room By M. Jones, May 2021
M. Jones is the pseudonym of a teacher. Reader Alexander Green writes, “I have never tried to find out more about an author in The Sun — until ‘The Quiet Room.’ . . . Writing like this deserves not just praise but widespread exposure of the sort not often granted an unknown public-school teacher.”
Inheritance By Debbie Urbanski, June 2021
Urbanski’s first novel, What Comes after the End, will be published in 2022. Read more of her pieces from The Sun here.
For last year’s recommended reading list, click here.