Story Craft

2024 Power of Narrative: “Be human first” when covering trauma and children

From pool drownings to school shootings, John Woodrow Cox shares lessons on reporting violence through the voices of children (and others)

By Esther Landhuis • April 25, 2024

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Personal Essays

The power of the pun, from Shakespeare to Walter Cronkite to Roy Peter Clark

How a bit of word play launched Clark's career as the renowned writing teacher at the Poynter Institute and author of 20 books on writing

By Roy Peter Clark • April 23, 2024

From the Editor

A time capsule of journalism’s romantic age

The editor visits the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club, where the company is fascinating, the drinks are cheap and the memories are deep

By Jacqui Banaszynski • April 22, 2024

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Personal Essays

The power of the pun, from Shakespeare to Walter Cronkite to Roy Peter Clark

By Roy Peter Clark
April 23, 2024

How a bit of word play launched Clark's career as the renowned writing teacher at the Poynter Institute and author of 20 books on writing

Personal Essays

How an old story taught new lessons about reporting trauma

By Line Vaaben
April 4, 2024

A quarter-century after a catastrophic fire, a reporter returned to interview survivors and faced the grief she had carried with her

Personal Essays

A New York Times profile of a Ukrainian sniper confronts the “myth of a ‘good kill'”

By Karl Marlantes
February 23, 2024

Novelist and Vietnam veteran Karl Marlantes on the moral dilemma revealed in a story by reporter and Afghanistan veteran Thomas Gibbons-Neff

Personal Essays

Not taking “no” for an answer

By Fern Reiss
December 20, 2023

A freelancer persisted through multiple rejections and 17 edits to land an article in a favorite magazine

Personal Essays

Two Native American journalists talk turkey about Thanksgiving

By Jason Begay
November 23, 2023

University of Montana journalist Jason Begay, of the Navajo Nation, talks to Washington Post journalist Dana Hedgpeth, of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, about living with and correcting history

Personal Essays

A journalist’s journey into her family story leads to a history of American pie

By Dustin Renwick
November 22, 2023

Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle baked a humble dessert into a big idea

Personal Essays

When journalism is emptied of journalism

By Christian Wihtol
October 12, 2023

A career newspaperman warns of the dangers that come with viewing journalism and other creative work as "content"

Personal Essays

Four girls, 60 years, 11 students, 2,800 miles and a new awareness of history

By Herbert Lowe
September 15, 2023

A journalist-turned-teacher takes students on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail to explore the nation's challenges through a journalistic lens

Personal Essays

The (should-be-easy) interview a veteran interviewer couldn’t bring himself to do

By Michael Ollove
July 28, 2023

A reporter sat with people in "the worst moments of their lives" but froze when it came time to talk to a famous writer

Personal Essays

What a prison writing program taught a professional writer from the inside out

By Lauren Kessler
July 20, 2023

Journalist and nonfiction author Lauren Kessler spent three years teaching — and learning from — men who wrote their stories behind bars

Personal Essays

“Star Trek” as a guide to sharing intimate, personal details

By Chloe Page
June 13, 2023

A PhD researcher in neuroscience finds a useful tool to decide when and how to use personal stories in her science writing

Personal Essays

What’s in a name? When it comes to podcasting, it can be confusing

By Samantha Hodder
April 14, 2023

A Canadian radio journalist fell in love with serial narrative podcasts, and is determined to help them find their known place at the storytelling table

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