Storyboard Best of 2025 (Part 1)

Your favorite stories of the year. Plus: The joy of artists’ residencies and finding the character in your memoir

December 12, 2025

Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter, delivered every Friday in your inbox.

***

Dear Storyboard community:

December arrived and with it, a sudden realization: thanks to this community, I discovered so much great writing and reporting this year.

It's impossible to keep up with everything published in print and online, so I asked you to highlight some of your favorite pieces of the year — stories, books, podcasts, documentaries, and beyond — and you more than delivered.

We received so many submissions that I'm going to separate them into digestible chapters. Today is Part 1, with more on the way next week.

Thank you again for a wonderful first year as your Storyboard editor.

Nieman Storyboard Best of 2025: Your favorite stories of the year (Part 1)

We asked, you answered — here are some of your favorite stories, books, and podcasts.

[ Read the story ]

Links of note

What might be on the horizon? Don't miss Nieman Lab's annual list of media predictions for 2026. Submissions range from the optimistic (“This is the year we recognize that community-rooted journalism is the foundation for any hope of rebuilding trust in news” — Sarabeth Berman) to the dystopian (“Gambling devoured sports media, and it only took about ten years. It seems clear that something similar is under way with politics coverage, too” — John Herrman).
If your 2026 goals include immersing yourself in one project, read a love letter to artists’ residencies by author Alice Driver, who shares a list of the residencies she took advantage of while working on her last book. “I didn’t know much about artists’ residencies before I got an agent and sold my book. I applied only to fully funded residencies. There are many that you can attend if you are willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. I enjoyed the application process because, for the most part, the residencies ask you to submit pages of your book manuscript. Being surrounded by other writers, dancers, visual artists, and musicians who are working on long-term projects made me feel seen, understood, and inspired.”
I'm always interested in how news organizations are pushing boundaries in digital storytelling, and here's an example taking on the topic of digital scams in India: Bloomberg has published an ambitious feature story paired with a graphic novel-style illustrated piece, by Anand RK, Suparna Sharma, Natalie Obiko Pearson, and Ruhani Kaur. Anand RK's illustrations convey the terrifying experience of a neurologist who was placed in "digital custody" and put under surveillance while being scammed out of her savings.
For writers working on memoir, Allison K. Williams reminds us that the person on the page isn’t the person writing the book: “If the memoir is any good, if your life has changed enough to write about and share with others, you aren’t that person anymore.” One additional tip on creating a story arc: “Start the memoir in the scene where you were farthest from that new self.”