Nieman narrative news: Please welcome Steve Almond and Louise Kiernan

An exciting word from the mothership:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Nieman Foundation for Journalism has hired Louise Kiernan to edit Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling, and Steve Almond to teach Nieman’s seminar in narrative writing, offered each year to Nieman Fellows.

Kiernan, a 2005 Nieman Fellow, is an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, focusing on narrative, investigative and social issues reporting. She joined the Medill faculty in September 2010 from the Chicago Tribune, where she worked for 18 years as a reporter and editor. She won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting as lead writer of a series on problems with air travel and was a Pulitzer finalist in the same category that year for an individual project. Kiernan holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Virginia.

Almond spent seven years as a journalist in El Paso and Miami, working jobs that ranged from restaurant critic to investigative reporter. He is the author of four books of nonfiction, including the New York Times bestseller Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America and the forthcoming Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto, as well as four books of fiction. He also is a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine and has taught writing at Emerson, Wesleyan, Boston College, and Ohio State. Almond holds a MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a bachelor’s in English from Wesleyan University.

Storyboard’s current editor, Paige Williams, who for the past four years has also served as Nieman’s narrative writing instructor, has accepted a professorship at the Missouri School of Journalism, to begin in the fall. A 1997 Nieman Fellow, Williams writes for The New Yorker, has taught at universities including NYU, MIT, and Emory, and has won numerous awards for her work, including the National Magazine Award for feature writing in 2008. She holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Mississippi.

For more than a decade, the Nieman Foundation has recognized the importance of narrative journalism and explored the craft through a narrative writing seminar for fellows; special events at Harvard; and the Nieman Storyboard website, which features posts on narrative technique from veteran storytellers and showcases contemporary nonfiction narrative in all media. The Nieman Foundation also published Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers Guide, featuring more than 90 essays on the craft.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard educates leaders in journalism and elevates the standards of the profession through special programs that convene scholars and experts in all fields. More than 1,400 journalists from 93 countries have been awarded Nieman Fellowships since 1938. In addition to Nieman Storyboard, the foundation’s other initiatives include Nieman Reports, a website and quarterly print magazine that explores contemporary challenges and opportunities in journalism, and the Nieman Journalism Lab, a website that reports on the future of news, innovation and best practices in the digital media age.