One morning this summer, I got on the elevator with a colleague at WNYC, where I’m working as an interim producer for national programs. My elevator pal had just gotten off the subway and was running late for a meeting … Read more
The New Journalism of the 1960s and 1970s – by Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, and others – made the biggest collective splash in recent American nonfiction, and certainly enlarged our idea of what the genre could do. The best of it may endure, but, 50 or 100 years from now, will people still be enthralled by Thompson’s psychedelic ramblings or the early Wolfe’s strings of italics and exclamation marks? More lasting, I think, as a grand pointillist mural of our time and place as expressed in the lives of an encyclopedic range of people, will be the work of John McPhee. Read more
Guest-curating our latest Notable Narrative is Tom Levenson, professor of science writing at MIT and the author of four books, most recently Newton and the Counterfeiter. He chose Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Fear of a Black President,” from The … Read more
From the Storyboard archives: tips on three of the fundamentals of narrative, from a trio of accomplished writers and editors. Click through to their full essays, and in the meantime here’s a highlight of each: … Read more
For the past few years, GQ correspondent Jeanne Marie Laskas has explored the myriad behind-the-scenes lives that help make our first-world reality what it is today. To borrow a couple of sentences from the current political discourse, “You didn’t build … Read more
Let’s talk about why we’re not talking, shall we? I’ve noticed a recent video journalism trend against treating the audience to a bit of narration. Yes, I said narration: the stuff so many video journalists shy from. Why the shyness? I’ve … Read more
Every narrative journalist can point to a story or a book, or two, that changed their lives, and that made them want to tell true stories. What story does it for you? Where was your love born? When we asked about … Read more
Dan Barry peddles in the petits dramas and crossroads that ordinary people meet day to day. Some of his best “This Land” columns for the New York Times suggest items that Anton Chekov might have written – that is, if … Read more
We chose Erin Sullivan’s story about a 9/11 survivor as our latest Notable Narrative for the usual reasons − interesting characters; strong, memorable writing − but also because it contained the watermark of a takeaway for surviving trauma. “Watermark” because, … Read more
We thought about rounding up some of the week’s better 9/11 anniversary coverage (including that viral thing about rescue dogs, because a great protagonist doesn’t have to be human), but decided to go with one piece as a … Read more