“Writing is one thing, living is another—or maybe not. In this, our life-as-maze, we can either spend our days wishing the maze weren’t so difficult or accept the challenge and be a-mazed in turn.” At JSTOR Daily, Mary Cappello pens a scholarly longread on what it means to escape.

“Wendy is more Mad Max than the nerd with a fondness for fossils I’d expected. A living legend, known the world over for her sixth sense. A celebrated dinosaur hunter. And a real badass.” Photographer Susan Portnoy explores the Canadian Badlands of southern Alberta with Wendy Sloboda.

“A lot can change in the course of one phone call.” At Commode to Joy, Jamie Muscato writes about her father’s death, her strong bond with her brother Troy, and the call that changed everything seven years ago.

A viral post from Audrey Nickel at The Geeky Gaeilgeoir: “Most of the time, I feel a little bit sorry for people who make horrendous translation mistakes. This is not one of those times.”

documenta 14, currently underway in Kassel, Germany, is one of the world’s leading contemporary-art events. Peter from documenting.the.obvious shares a collection of striking images from his recent visit.

“I pull into the park district lot, rain pelting against the windshield, and as usual there are no spaces available near the building entrance so I make a bee line toward a spot at the far end . . .” At Thread, Jane Donaldson writes a one-sentence essay — and the sentence is 832 words.

“So for those who knew, it must have been very strange that we have dead bones in our closet.” The Caspers are an American expat family in Cairo, Egypt. Jayson Casper tells the story of Max, the skeleton they’ve lived with, and explores a different view of death in Middle East culture.

Among this collection at Microfiction Monday Magazine, a snippet of micro fiction by Digby Beaumont: “He loses things: A pair of paisley socks, computer files, his job at Panasonic, the desire to sing the old songs, his trust in the goodness of others.”

Courtenay Bluebird on writing stories: “Writers pocket these moments and pull them out to look at later under a lamp with a notebook. This is fine with me—it’s magpie stealing. It is general and gestural and often sweet.”

A Q&A with the Vibrator Nation author: “They led with sex education not titillation, and worked to advance a social mission that included putting a vibrator on the bedside table of every woman, everywhere, because they believed that access to accurate sexual information and quality products had the potential to make everyone’s lives better.”