We welcomed thousands of new visitors to Storyboard this year along with exciting new contributors and content. Thanks for your continued enthusiasm and support, and for helping to further the storytelling aspect of the Nieman Foundation's journalistic mission, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2013. To stay in closer touch, join us on Twitter at @niemanstory and Like us on Facebook. We'll be back on Jan. 8, and to close out 2012 here are our 10 most popular posts of the year. Enjoy!10. “What’s on your syllabus?”
Assigned reading lists from narrative journalists/professors Jacqui Banaszynski, Mark Bowden, Madeleine Blais, Rob Boynton, Jeff Sharlet and Rebecca Skloot — and why they're important
9. "Stories from the edge of listening"
Storyboard’s debut Audio Danger column by radio producer Julia Barton, who writes about audio narratives
8. "The essence of story, in a 358-word song"
Sports on Earth writer Tommy Tomlinson unpacks elements of narrative via Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe."
7. "Nora Ephron on writing: seven insights"
Ephron died unexpectedly in June but her creativity and wisdom will live forever.
6. "‘Why's this so good?’ No. 39: Gay Talese and Frank Sinatra"
Pulitzer winner Maria Henson tells us what makes "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" a classic.
5. "Buzz Bissinger on heart, luck, honesty, critics and the importance of switching things up"
The narrative legend and Friday Night Lights author in conversation with Nieman Foundation curator Ann Marie Lipinski
4. "Notable Narrative: 'Fear of a Black President' by Ta-Nehisi Coates"
MIT's Tom Levenson talks with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates about his powerful Atlantic cover story on race in America and the challenges of being Barack Obama.
3. "‘Why's this so good?’ No. 35: Malcolm Gladwell on ketchup"
Tim Carmody lists what the New Yorker's Gladwell does so well, focusing on "The Ketchup Conundrum."
2. "Building better sentences: Connie Hale on verbs, nouns, Vikings, scenes, geekspeak, grammar wars and rewiring bad lines"
Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch author Constance Hale on the marvels and mysteries of writing
1. "David Grann on the making of 'The Yankee Comandante'"
The New Yorker writer and author of books including The Lost City of Z talks with Storyboard about the reporting and writing of one of the year's most memorable narratives, about an American expat fighting in revolutionary Cuba.
