Longform.Org

I will be traveling most of today; in fact, I am sitting at the gate at O’Hare now. But before I go dark for the bulk of the day, I wanted to remind people about a Nonfiction RA resource that I use all the time, but have not blogged about in a while-- Longform.Org:

Longform.org recommends new and classic non-fiction from around the web. 

Article suggestions, including writers and magazines submitting their own work, are encouraged. Longform considers pieces over 2,000 words that are freely available online.

The site recommends the best in short nonfiction, a few articles every day. You can read on the site, in an app, send it to another service where you like to read all of your interesting articles, and/or subscribe to the podcast and listen to your nonfiction. They keep a searchable archive too.

Because they recommend both old and new articles from any topic imaginable, with editorial control [i.e. an actual human picking what is good], you can satisfy just about any nonfiction reader with this free service.

Here are some searches I have done on Longform.com for actual patrons in the last 2 years:

• Current nonfiction about the “Pope”
• Information about Edward Snowden

And when you run a search, if one of the articles received a “best” status from them at anytime, it is clearly noted.

They also create guides to topics, so you can read their accumulation on the best articles about topics as wide ranging as Hillary Clinton, Road Trips, High School, and Manhunts to name only a few.

And if that wasn’t enough, if you have a patron with a favorite author--fiction or nonfiction-- they have probably written a long from nonfiction piece that has been collected by Longform.org. Here are some examples:

• Susan Orlean
• Simon Winchester
• Jonathan Franzen
• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Colson Whitehead

And to satisfy your current event junkies who want to delve into the hottest topics as they are happening and don’t want to wait for a full book in a year or two, a daily click on the “Popular” or "Best New Articles” categories will get them what they are looking for.

If there is a hot article being talked about in the media, it is probably going to be on Longform.org, for example this week everyone is talking about the GQ article by Michael Chabon’s on his son, “The Prince of Fashion.” It’s there.

You get the gist. There is a lot of info on Longform.org for you to use to help your nonfiction patrons find leisure reading. And thanks to the University of Pittsburgh’s Writing Program, it is all free.

Try it out for yourself or use it to help a patron today.

Back from a new time zone tomorrow.