5 Questions

Grounding apocalyptic issues in reality without losing hope

Q&A with Washington Post writer Dan Zak about his daring and emotional query about climate change, and finding some calm in the controversy

By Rebecca Boyle • March 21, 2019

Bare trees in Indonesia

Read More

One Great Sentence

“She stares at me, but it feels like she’s looking at who I used to be, her little girl with ponytails and a snaggletooth who swore she was a Powerpuff Girl.”

From the young adult novel "The Hate U Give," by Angie Thomas

By Jill U. Adams • March 20, 2019

One Great Sentence

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!'”

Jack Kerouac from his autobiographical novel "On The Road"

By Curt Brown • March 13, 2019

Featured Contributors

Steve Oney

Katia Savchuk

Julia Shipley

Jasmine Bager

Julie Schwietert Collazo

Tom Warhover

More contributors

Featured topics

Investigative Reporting Short Narratives Tom Junod Poverty Narrative Journalism
Show section navigation Hide section navigation ⨂

Annotation Tuesday!

Shop Class: Learning to look up, down, sideways, backwards and beyond

By Jacqui Banaszynski and Ted Ringger
March 12, 2019

An amateur photographer's blog provides lessons for all storytellers on where to train your eye

Short Takes

Newsroom Ode #10: A loyalist’s last lament

By Don Nelson
March 11, 2019

A dead-tree dinosaur writes from the edge of extinction

Annotation Tuesday!

THE PITCH: Wired’s exec editor seeks stories that reveal all faces of technology

By Katia Savchuk
March 5, 2019

Rejections aren't personal: “70 percent of why pitches don't work has nothing to do with the writer”

Short Takes

Newsroom Ode #9: Echoes from an empty desk

By Don Nelson
March 4, 2019

A dead-tree dinosaur writes from the edge of extinction

Notable Narratives

Raw first stories from the Appalachian Trail

By Greg Bowers
February 28, 2019

Earl V. Shaffer's original journals reveal a treasure trove that inspired a book, and generations of hikers — and writers — to come

5 Questions

Building a museum with jars of dirt, and building stories from the ground up

By Kim Cross
February 26, 2019

A writer profiles Alabama's new memorial to slavery through the eyes of slavery's descendants — connecting then and now, "us and them"

Short Takes

Newsroom Ode #8: Podium pontifications

By Don Nelson
February 25, 2019

A dead-tree dinosaur writes from the edge of extinction

Story Craft

Can a soundtrack ease you through a story?

By Jessica Wapner
February 21, 2019

A veteran journalist tuned into music to turn on her writing

One Great Sentence

“I’m thinking longer term, in geologic time, doing just what I can each day and not putting it off because it won’t be brilliant.”

By Jill U. Adams
February 20, 2019

From Amy Liptrot, in her memoir "The Outrun"

Why's This So Good?

What the “Insect Apocalypse” reveals about faulty human memory

By Ben Goldfarb
February 19, 2019

Brooke Jarvis takes windshield wipers to environmental blindness

Short Takes

Newsroom Ode #7: Desperation calls the consultant

By Don Nelson
February 18, 2019

A dead-tree dinosaur writes from the edge of extinction

Story Craft

Forget the chocolates. Tell a story instead

By Jacqui Banaszynski
February 14, 2019

A Valentine's Day sampler of non-cliche love stories

More stories