Larissa MacFarquhar
Larissa MacFarquhar has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998. She has written about child-protective services, the battered-women’s movement, dementia, and hospice care, and her Profile subjects have included John Ashbery, Barack Obama, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Mantel, Derek Parfit, David Chang, and Aaron Swartz, among many others. She is the author of “Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help.” Before joining the magazine, she was a senior editor at Lingua Franca and an advisory editor at The Paris Review, and wrote for Artforum, The Nation, The New Republic, the Times Book Review, Slate, and other publications. She has received two Front Page Awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York and the Johnson & Johnson Excellence in Media Award. Her writing has appeared in “The Best American Political Writing” and “The Best American Food Writing.”
Living in Adoption’s Emotional Aftermath
Adoptees reckon with corruption in orphanages, hidden birth certificates, and the urge to search for their birth parents.
Hilary Mantel’s Life with Ghosts
The author, who has died at the age of seventy, saw little distinction between the living and the dead.
When One Parent Leaves a Hasidic Community, What Happens to the Kids?
The irreconcilable differences between Orthodoxy and secularism increasingly end up in court.
How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands
Once a distant outpost of the British Empire, the islands have become a global crossroads. In the season of the coronavirus, the intimate communities may evolve yet again.
The Radical Transformations of a Battered Women’s Shelter
Transition House had to be true to its principles and then it had to leave them behind.
The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care
Many facilities are using nostalgic environments as a means of soothing the misery, panic, and rage their residents experience.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Comes to Terms with Global Fame
As her subjects have expanded, her audience has, too, but visibility has its drawbacks.
The Mind-Expanding Ideas of Andy Clark
The tools we use to help us think—from language to smartphones—may be part of thought itself.
Where the Small-Town American Dream Lives On
As America’s rural communities stagnate, what can we learn from one that hasn’t?
The Gentleness of John Ashbery
Ashbery liked that each reader read his poems differently, that they were refracted through many heads and notions.
When Should a Child Be Taken from His Parents?
In family court, judges must decide whether the risks at home outweigh the risks of separating a family.
Building a Prison-to-School Pipeline
Formerly incarcerated undergrads started a group on campus to offer mentoring, support, and advocacy to other onetime inmates.
In the Heart of Trump Country
West Virginia used to vote solidly Democratic. Now it belongs to Trump. What happened?
A Tender Hand in the Presence of Death
The daily work of a hospice nurse, who treats the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of people at the most vulnerable point of their lives.
Living in Adoption’s Emotional Aftermath
Adoptees reckon with corruption in orphanages, hidden birth certificates, and the urge to search for their birth parents.
Hilary Mantel’s Life with Ghosts
The author, who has died at the age of seventy, saw little distinction between the living and the dead.
When One Parent Leaves a Hasidic Community, What Happens to the Kids?
The irreconcilable differences between Orthodoxy and secularism increasingly end up in court.
How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands
Once a distant outpost of the British Empire, the islands have become a global crossroads. In the season of the coronavirus, the intimate communities may evolve yet again.
The Radical Transformations of a Battered Women’s Shelter
Transition House had to be true to its principles and then it had to leave them behind.
The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care
Many facilities are using nostalgic environments as a means of soothing the misery, panic, and rage their residents experience.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Comes to Terms with Global Fame
As her subjects have expanded, her audience has, too, but visibility has its drawbacks.
The Mind-Expanding Ideas of Andy Clark
The tools we use to help us think—from language to smartphones—may be part of thought itself.
Where the Small-Town American Dream Lives On
As America’s rural communities stagnate, what can we learn from one that hasn’t?
The Gentleness of John Ashbery
Ashbery liked that each reader read his poems differently, that they were refracted through many heads and notions.
When Should a Child Be Taken from His Parents?
In family court, judges must decide whether the risks at home outweigh the risks of separating a family.
Building a Prison-to-School Pipeline
Formerly incarcerated undergrads started a group on campus to offer mentoring, support, and advocacy to other onetime inmates.
In the Heart of Trump Country
West Virginia used to vote solidly Democratic. Now it belongs to Trump. What happened?
A Tender Hand in the Presence of Death
The daily work of a hospice nurse, who treats the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of people at the most vulnerable point of their lives.