A Love Letters Feature by Amal El-Mohtar - November 2025

I had reason to take a long drive recently, down the length of California from the Bay back to my home in Los Angeles. I made the mistake of taking the 5, saving me some time but the route took me thr...

I saw an old friend for brunch recently. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside feeling the cool crisp air and shared a Japanese-style pancake with the approximate diameter of a basketball, custard...

Recently, I climbed into an alpine lake. The rocks were slippery and unstable, the water near freezing. In the time it took to gasp, the cold was in my bones. I waded deeper until I found sandy bottom...

Listen to Writing Excuses on RedCircle

Categories are made up. They will always be nothing more than an approximation of the thing itself. Nothing as simple as a label can encompass the experience, the reality, and the nuance of any indivi...

Categories are made up. They will always be nothing more than an approximation of the thing itself. Nothing as simple as a label can encompass the experience, the reality, and the nuance of any indivi...

it really is. occasional thoughts on how to make it survivable and keep from losing your mind in the process.

Right now, people around the world are marching and protesting against racism and police brutality, outraged by the most recent police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. At Signal, we support the people who have gone into the streets to make their voices heard. We believe that something ...

Fullmetal Alchemist’s two anime series show the difference between animating a manga and adapting it

Apparitions, black hares and time warps festoon the pages of Elizabeth Hand’s “A Haunting on the Hill,” set in the same moldering mansion as Shirley Jackson’s classic horror novel.