The Sun Magazine

In her essay “The Good End of Pleasant Street,” which appears in our June issue, Heather Lanier and her family move into an apartment that’s part dream, part unfortunate reality. Their new place is in a beautiful Vermont town and has affordable rent. However, it’s also got lead paint, loud neighbors, and proximity to the town’s heroin crisis. All of this leaves the author co...

The Sun has always belonged to its readers. It exists because people believe in quiet conversation, in close listening, in honest storytelling. It exists because readers like you decide that this endeavor is worth sustaining.

The reason Black women were used to develop the field of gynecology was because they were no more than property. They weren’t seen as people; they were just seen as things. The controlling of Black women’s bodies started with chattel slavery, but it continues today.

Kris Chambas is a retired pediatric nurse practitioner and former pastry chef. She lives on a lake in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and loves spending time with her grandchildren and their yellow Lab, Odie. She snapped our June cover photo on a humid morning in a cattle barn at the Wisconsin State Fair.

Although it’s always difficult to read about a woman repressing a part of herself to hang on to a relationship, I greatly appreciated Moonshine Matthiessen’s essay “Waterfall” in the January 2026 issue. The piece is beautifully written, and Matthiessen is incredibly candid about her experiences. I admire her courage to voice her desires, her shame, and her struggles.