The Atlantic published University of Oregon professor Alex Tizon’s posthumous story on slavery Tuesday morning, and announced it will run on the cover of the June edition of the magazine.
“Alex did not know that we would be putting his piece on the cover of this issue; he died the day we made that decision, before we had a chance to tell him,” Editor Jeffery Goldberg stated in an editor’s note.
Tizon’s wife, Melissa, told The Atlantic, “This was his ultimate story. He was trying to write it for five or six years. He struggled with it. But when he started writing it for The Atlantic, he stopped struggling. He wrote it with such ease.”
On The Atlantic’s website, some of the comments on the story, called “My Family’s Slave,” read, “This is so incredibly sad,” and “I cried reading this.”
Tizon, a Pulitzer Prize winner, died in his home in March at age 57.
He was a beloved professor at the University of Oregon.

JUST POSTED: My Family’s Slave by Alex Tizon https://t.co/yB0qEhepay pic.twitter.com/cfF0Mri3sC
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) May 16, 2017