“She’d have less to worry about if she knew none of these things. But if she knew none of these things, I reason, she also wouldn’t know me.” At LitHub, Rachel Beanland explores whether or not family secrets are ever justified.

An essay on death, loss, and coronavirus: “The same unknown that makes me nurse the thought of my mother’s death, makes me think of the loneliness of everyone who died of the virus…. For decades, for the rest of their lives they will be imagining the last moments of the ones who left them.”

Poet Anthony Wilson on loss and grief: “As we say, the memories ‘come flooding back.’ Whoever first said this has a lot to answer for. Sometimes they drip drip drip away at me, in the dark, not a flood at all. Other days (nights) it is a torrent.”

Kim Foster’s James Beard Award-winning essay weaves together the themes of family, addiction, and fast food into a beautiful (and heartbreaking) narrative.

As Devin Kelly recalls the death of his friend’s mom and how that spurred him to reconnect with his own mother, he reconsiders masculinity through the lens of grief and what we learn from suffering.

Dr. Eleanor Janega, a Medievalist, dives deep into the history of pandemics and dispels common mistakes about one of the most notorious (and deadly) ones — the 14th-century Black Death.

Alex Cochrane writes a eulogy for his mother, who lived a unique and incredible life: “The lives of both my parents wildly oscillated between disaster and triumph – a drunken lurch between palace and dosshouse.”

Tara Williamson reflects on the lives of Tina Fontaine and Colten Boushie and on how Canada’s systemic dehumanization of Indigenous people led to their needless deaths.

Battling her own cancer and in the throes of chemotherapy, Denise Archer used a late friend’s clothing to make quilts for the children she left behind. “Some of your mom’s hair is inside,” I told them.” “Also, if you breathe in deeply, you can smell her.”

Sometimes it takes a touch of darkness (from the “glandular sacs of dead musk deer” to particularly putrid flowers) to create something alluring.

“Being a food writer is the most punk rock thing a person can do, and Jonathan Gold was the most punk rock of us all.” Javier Cabral pays homage to the legendary Los Angeles food writer, who was both his mentor and his role model.

“A simple question, posed at eight o’clock on a Saturday night. I got 5,000 comments back.” At the Village Voice, Mikel Jollett writes on music’s power to evoke memory and a sense of loss.

On Philip Roth’s death: “Now Roth has made the same mistake. He’s no longer here to represent his body of work. It’s up to us to keep reading the books. They are not of this time. They will offend a lot of people. They are some of the very best books I have ever known.”