Articles

“A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.”

Why is it great? For “Controversy Week” on Storyboard, I chose a sentence from one of the most controversial books of the 20th century. “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was shocking on…
September 6, 2017
Kari Howard
The late Alex Tizon and "My Family's Slave": his first memory, and his last byline

The late Alex Tizon and “My Family’s Slave”: his first memory, and his last byline

The Atlantic story, published just weeks after his death, drew a firestorm of criticism; a Pulitzer winner and friend examines the craft, and the loss
September 5, 2017
Jacqui Banaszynski
Monica Hesse and "American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land”

Monica Hesse and “American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land”

The Washington Post reporter talks about what it's like to juggle multiple projects (and genres), and the virtue of capturing the way people talk
August 31, 2017
Julia Shipley

“Sometimes at noon down South on the hottest of days, when everyone is shivering inside their arctic offices, I go outside just to hear the metallic whirring of the cicadas start up in the trees on the edge of the parking lot. Their tymbals pulsate against their abdomens and the thick air reverberates with the loneliest sound in the universe.”

In addition to the music of Blythe’s lush language, I love how he captures this brash paradox–that a chorus can make us feel so lonely. Furthermore I love how, like…
August 30, 2017
Julia Shipley
Notable Narrative: Joe Kovac Jr. and a tale of murder, a manhunt and a midnight run

Notable Narrative: Joe Kovac Jr. and a tale of murder, a manhunt and a midnight run

The reporter for Georgia's Macon Telegraph shows that even on regional newspapers with tiny staffs, writers can dream large with gripping narratives
August 29, 2017
Steve Oney

5(ish) Questions: Podcast producer Lily Percy and humor as a survival tool

"Laughter helps us heal," she says of a 15-episode C.O.O.L. series featuring the famous (Terry McMillan) and the not-so-famous (a drag-queen-turned-rabbi)
August 24, 2017
Roy Rivenburg

“Take me or leave me; or, as is the usual order of things, both.”

Why is it great? Yesterday was Dorothy Parker’s birthday. (She would have been 124, reminding me of her classic line, “Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy…
August 23, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Mandy Len Catron and "How to Fall in Love With Anyone"

5(ish) Questions: Mandy Len Catron and “How to Fall in Love With Anyone”

The author of the viral Modern Love essay in The New York Times follows up with a book about romance -- and the danger of fetishizing love
August 22, 2017
Olga Kreimer
5(ish) Questions: Andy Kopsa and the slow payoff of freelance longform work

5(ish) Questions: Andy Kopsa and the slow payoff of freelance longform work

The writer, who alternates between shorter stories and time-consuming investigative stories, talks about the financial hardships of her career -- and offers tips to others starting out in a tough…
August 17, 2017
Alina DIzik

“Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.”

Why is it great? Here in E.B. White’s Maine, August is bittersweet, bringing whispers of summer’s end even at the height of its ripeness. Apples, the fruit of fall, begin…
August 16, 2017
Kari Howard