#VQRTrueStory is a social-media experiment in nonfiction that delivers stories across platforms—from Instagram to the website to the magazine. Each week, a contributor takes over our Instagram feed, @vqreview, to post original dispatches that tell the stories behind the pictures. The dispatches are then published on our website as a complete essay. With each issue of VQR, we select a handful of dispatches from various contributors to include in the magazine’s #VQRTrueStory column. You can visit the #VQRTrueStory archive to read all the contributions so far. And be sure to follow @vqreview to keep up with the project as it unfolds.
Project Archive
Liskuvate’s Exiles
Megan Buskey in Khyriv, Ukraine
Returning to Nature
Dionne Ford in New Orleans, LA
Red Mountain
Clement Gelly in Erdenet, Mongolia
Sisters at the Falls
Oona Robertson in Niagara Falls, Canada
The Provenance Detective
Emily Ding in London, UK
Looking
Kathryn Savage in Tulsa, OK
COVID Dreams
The Nocturnists
Tasting Notes
Erika Koss in Kenya
Bearing Witness
Benita Mayo in the Charlottesville, VA
Dry Days
Tom Haines in the Great Plains
The House That Built Me
Baylea Jones in Southwest Louisiana
Second Wave
Anandi Mishra in Delhi, India
Strange Luck
Rianna Paulina Starheim in Purcellville, VA
Vendimia
Meg Bernhard
Lonely Hearts Club
Emily Ding
Notes on a Ghost Town
R.A. Frumkin in Southern Illinois
In the Underwater World of 2050
Brian Turner in Kolkata, India
Photographs by Sonnet Mondal
Building Fences
Kenneth Rosen in Feltre, Italy and The Berkshires, MA
Hunger
Charlie Raboteau, as told to Emily Raboteau, in Philadelphia, PA
After the Old City
Hananah Zaheer in Lahore, Pakistan
Postcards
Amitava Kumar in Poughkeepsie, NY
Cuarentena
Meg Bernhard in Barcelona, Spain
Photographs by Anna Surinyach
The Work of Hands
Jordan Kisner in New England
Ill Nature
Dan Schwartz in Quispillaccta, Peru
Fossil Combing
Emily Ding in Jurassic Coast, England
Narrative Rhythms
Rianna Pauline Starheim in Manassas, VA
The High Window
David L. Ulin in Los Angeles, California
Tropicana Day Trip
Ann Neumann in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Photographs by James Sprankle
The North Woods
Porter Fox in Aroostook County, Maine
Photographs by Sara Fox
This Land Is Our Land
Emily Ding in Kelantan, Malaysia
The Right to Be Let Alone
Ann Neumann in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Dancing Days
David L. Ulin in Los Angeles, California
Sunday Market, Tiretti Bazaar
Emily Ding in Kolkata, India
Diggers
Katherine E. Standefer in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Memory Wars
Emily Ding in Belfast, Ireland
Woe and Wonder
Joshua Wolf Shenk in Los Angeles, California
Unmanned
Will Boast in Serekkunda, Gambia
Walking Away
Julia Cooke in Tahiti, French Polynesia
Vaqueros
Michael Snyder in Real de Catorce, Mexico
Under Pressure
Rianna Pauline Starheim in Jefferson, NY
Exile In White
Ruxandra Guidi in Los Angeles
Photographs by Bear Guerra
Omnipresence
Ann Neumann in Brooklyn, NY
Photographs by Elizabeth Felicella
Backcountry Politics
Lois Parshley in US National Parks
The Other Chile (Cecilia and Patricia)
Angie Cruz in Santiago, Chile
Dreams of My Mother
Anna March in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photographs by Cèdric Von Niederhäusern
Life Is Why
Rianna Pauline Starheim in Alexandria, Virginia
Take ‘Em Down
James McWilliams in New Orleans, Louisiana
Photographs by Julie Dermansky
Neon Havana
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro in Havana, Cuba
Photographs by Mirissa Neff
Dropping In
Bret Anthony Johnston in Desert Hot Springs, CA
Photographs by Bill Driver
Subway Rorschach
Neil Shea in Brooklyn, NY
No Republican Shall Inherit
Randy R. Potts in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Rainbow Weather in Kabul
Rianna Pauline Starheim in Kabul, Afghanistan
Starting Over
Ruxandra Guidi in Los Angeles
Photographs by Bear Guerra
Faith and Its Limits
Ann Neumann in Lancaster County, PA
Photographs by James Sprankle
We All Travel the Milky Way Together
Michael O. Snyder in California
Farhad
Laura Kasinof in Germany
Photographs by Alex Potter
The Air Keeps It Interesting
Ryan Bradley in Los Angeles
Stony Island Story Problem
Lauren Berlant in Chicago
Art by Stephanie Brooks
To Write About A Hole
Jennifer Kabat in New York City
Saint Coltrane
Anisse Gross in San Francisco
An Audience with Wirathu
Sarah Khatry in Myanmar
In the Powder River Basin
Tom Haines in Wyoming
The Truths of Antarctica
Maggie Shipstead in Antarctica
On the Great Bear Sea
Luke Padgett in Canada’s Kitimat Fjords
On Henry Locke’s Wine Dark Sea
Gaiutra Bahadur in New York
Picturing the Pipeline
Holly Haworth in southwest Virginia
Resilience in East Timor
Jerry Redfern in Southeast Asia
Problem Solving at the MacDowell Colony
Danica Novgorodoff on five artists
His Faithful Servant
Randy R. Potts on LGBT life and Christian faith
In the Shadow of Olympus
Baynard Woods on polytheists in Greece
Dubliners
Jeff Sharlet in Dublin
The Last Days of High Bridge Arms
Lili Loofbourow on San Francisco’s last gun shop
Details From the Fogg Museum
Rachel Cohen on encounters at the Fogg Museum
Hope for Sale
Laura Kasinof on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Lesotho
Sidewalks
Jamie Alliotts on encounters on the streets of Manhattan
Vestiges of the Socialist Time
Julia Cooke in Mawlamyine, Burma
Northbound
Lauren Markham on Central American migrants
Elemental India
Meera Subramanian on a changing India