Broadsides

An excerpt of “Geographical Histories of Centralia, Kansas,” written and read by Jodi Cressman.The full piece appears in our Summer 2026 issue. Tell us about your relationship to writing. For most of my professional life, I was an academic writer composing scholarly essays for a narrow audience of contemporary literature subspecialists. Then, . . .

Photo by ProtoplasmaKid, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The 2026 FIFA World Cup was sold as a celebration of North American unity. Host governments promised growth, prestige and international visibility. The tournament arrives at a moment when North American integration itself appears increasingly fragile. Trade disputes, hardened borders, migration conflicts and growing distrust . . .

One day recently, I sat down to teach my little sister, Marah, who is six years old. The lesson was about colors in English. But on the pages before us, I found that despite their names all the colors were printed in black. How will children learn the difference between colors when . . .