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Dear Storyboard community,
As I settle in as Storyboard guest editor, I’m eager to discuss the craft of narrative nonfiction, while also opening up this space to ask critical questions about how the work is done, whom it's serving, and how we can tell stories in a way that respects community and preserves humanity.
As wildfires continue to burn in Southern California, destroying homes and displacing people, such questions were already top of mind for journalist Jon Mooallem when he was given an assignment from The New York Times Magazine to cover the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California — which at the time was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. “We Have Fire Everywhere” was published in July 2019, and you can read Storyboard's full annotation here.
On preparing to interview sources, Mooallem said: "I didn’t have a toolkit for that. All I could do was be as kind and patient and human as possible, and demonstrate that I didn’t feel entitled to any of their time or cooperation. I could only ask."
“Doing this story affected me deeply and still does. ‘Trauma’ is the only word I know for it, and I hope I can use it without taking anything away from the trauma of people who’ve actually lived through wildfires [or] from other journalists who cover these disasters more directly.“
Telling the Stories of a Black Neighborhood in Altadena
Journalists on the ground in Southern California are navigating questions about how to tell the stories of those who are in shock and experiencing a tremendous loss in real-time.
For Capital B News, Adam Mahoney covered the history and family stories of the middle-class Black community in Altadena, where entire neighborhoods were wiped out by the Eaton fire:
Since 2020, major insurers have abandoned Altadena, leaving hundreds of Black families like the Daniels without coverage. And like many other Black families in the area, they’re still expected to pay their mortgages while covering rent elsewhere. Three days after the fire, a real estate broker contacted Daniels’ mother with a “deal”: $7,000 rent for a 3-bedroom apartment in neighboring Monrovia. Double the average rent in the area.
For more on Altadena, AfroLA has published an in-depth history of the neighborhood.
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Taking a Trauma-Informed Approach
Journalist Erika Hayasaki, who is based in Southern California (she also wrote about the devastating Maui wildfire for New York magazine and The New York Times), writes in her newsletter about friends who lost homes, and she offers advice about trauma-informed reporting:
"If the experience is still too raw, is the person really ready [to be interviewed]? Can they detach from the story and not be triggered by it? Here is another trauma-informed journalism principle: Don’t push. Instead, give them a chance to speak to you when ready."
For more resources on trauma-informed reporting, see our most recent stories from Nieman Reports. For information on how you can donate to those affected by the LA fires, see this guide from the Los Angeles Times.
Links of Note
We'll continue to feature stories, books, podcasts, documentaries, and useful resources in our weekly newsletter. If there's something you'd like to share, send me a note (heymarkarms@gmail.com) and tell me why you loved it.
- Lila Shapiro's New York magazine investigation into the sexual assault allegations made by multiple women against author Neil Gaiman is both deeply reported and harrowing to read. Shapiro's story builds off allegations first revealed in a July 2024 podcast, "Master," produced by Tortoise Media. The producer for that series endorsed the story on Bluesky, adding that it included elements that "we were legally unable to publish in the UK." (Gaiman denied the allegations.)
- Los Angeles Times reporter Keri Blakinger spoke to Texas Standard this week about "I Am Ready, Warden," a new documentary directed by Smriti Mundhra, which Blakinger produced. The film tells the story of John Henry Ramirez, who faced execution for the killing of Pablo Castro, and the impact of the crime and its punishment on the two men’s sons. "There’s a lot of stories in reporting that explore narratives of people who are innocent and wrongfully convicted," Blakinger said. “And it’s easier to get sympathy for them and get readers and viewers to care. But I think this gave us a chance to explore ideas of redemption that you can’t explore the same way with someone who’s not admitting guilt."
Thank you for reading,
Mark Armstrong
Guest Editor
Nieman Storyboard
