“Pitches and favors are different animals and should be approached differently.” Concrete tips from writer Alana Massey on asking favors from writers and editors.

“Losing weight does not mean you no longer struggle with your weight; I wish I had truly understood that. I still struggle with food. I still struggle with me.” The blogger at Can Anybody Hear Me? on losing weight, but failing to discover (and truly love) herself.

Chloé Caldwell is the author of a novella, WOMEN, and two essay collections. She teaches memoir and personal essay classes in New York City, and is a writer for numerous publications, from Vice to Salon.com. On her personal blog, she comments on writing and publishing, among other topics.

“It’s not just a literal narrative about a family with a terminally ill child. It’s a journey through the doubts and struggles of the soul.” At Feminist Frequency, Carolyn Petit reviews That Dragon, Cancer, a video game that chronicles the lives of creators Ryan and Amy Green, whose son is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

On the site of Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Milk — the filmmaker and founder of VR shop Vrse — talks with a16z’s Chris Dixon about how virtual reality can connect with people in ways no other medium can.

Benjamin Morris on Stephen Curry: “Curry isn’t a product of the math; he’s so good that he has his own math. Indeed, the math is so far in Curry’s favor that the Warriors — and even basketball in general — may not fully understand what they have yet.”

At Fortune magazine, Vivienne Walt offers an inside story on how Jeff Bezos aims to conquer the next “trillion-dollar market.”

“Who knew the practicalities of death had a timeline?” A powerful personal essay by Dr. Jen Gunter about losing a child and facing questions about burial.

An epic illustrated oral history of the making (and near unmaking) of Paul Thomas Anderson’s ensemble film Boogie Nights, published on Grantland.

Actress Heather Matarazzo recalls when she lost a role in a movie because she wasn’t f*ckable: “I can still feel the pain, shame, and humiliation that came over me in that moment…. I had to really look at myself and see my beauty, and once I could accept the harsh reality that I was indeed, not only f*ckable, but fu*cking beautiful, everything started to change.”

Aaron Cohen at Unlikely Words realized in 2014 that he had stopped reading books. So in 2015 he resolved to fix that — and the result is this gigantic list of every book he read this year, complete with recommendations.

Tin House has published a powerful speech given by Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn, about misogyny in the literary world. “Let us not make people at the margins into scouts or spies for the mainstream.”