Want a break from today's scary news?

Happy New Year? Well, we hope 2021 will be kinder to us than 2020, but only time will tell. Just a week in, 2021 isn't looking pretty yet.

In the Bay Area and across the country, we're nearly 10 months into COVID restrictions. Some of us are skin-starved, many of us even love-starved. No hugs, no spooning, no sex, no friends and no family.

Musician Malik Mayes, better known as rapper Mahawam, grew up between Arizona and Texas with a single mother.

Brandon Taylor's highly praised debut novel, "Real Life," gets deep into desire, intimacy, sex, abuse, homophobia, racism, misogyny, love, hate, and the blurred lines between friends and lovers.

Pamela Sneed's prose and poetry can reach out and grab you. They did me.

As we approach our 10th month under COVID's cloud, it's depressingly clear the holiday season won't be "normal." How might we find joy and peace without our usual parties, events and general fa-la-la falderal?

Sal and Nancy Tran are children of Vietnamese immigrants, artists and twins who grew up in Vallejo, California.

What a stressful, frightening year: COVID-19, layoffs, police killing Black people, enormous protests, massive wildfires, hurricanes, a fraught national election and our soon-to-be-former President Donald Trump still won't concede.

Casper Cendre started writing letters to people in prison while in high school.

Even before COVID-19 hit, queer young people were at higher risk than their heterosexual peers for depression, anxiety, suicide, and other serious mental health issues