Wei Tchou’s essays and reporting can be found in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Paris Review, and the Oxford American, among other publications. Her first book, Little Seed (Deep Vellum, 2024), is out now.
At the time of my brother’s first psychotic break, I knew nothing about ferns but that I had one and it was dying. I watched its seashell leaves wilt and drain. First they were jade, then chartreuse, then cream and sienna, like a stained...