Articles

Want to read some of the best literary journalism of 2017? We've got you covered

Want to read some of the best literary journalism of 2017? We’ve got you covered

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
December 22, 2017
Kari Howard
"Draft No. 4": the legendary John McPhee's "master class in the writer's craft"

“Draft No. 4”: the legendary John McPhee’s “master class in the writer’s craft”

Who *wouldn't* want to learn the secrets of one of the best literary journalists of the last 50 years? Do we see any hands at all? Didn't think so.
December 21, 2017
David L. Ulin

“We were taken to the ‘Oh, My God, Corner,’ a position near the escalator. People arriving see the long line and say “Oh, my God!” and it’s an elf’s job to calm them down and explain that it will take no longer than an hour to see Santa.”

—David Sedaris, "SantaLand Diaries" from "Holidays on Ice"
December 20, 2017
Julia Shipley
A veteran freelancer on pitching The New York Times Magazine and more

A veteran freelancer on pitching The New York Times Magazine and more

Reporter (and editor) Paul Tullis has been on both sides of the pitching process; here, he annotates his "Into the Wildfires" proposal
December 19, 2017
Katia Savchuk
Liana Aghajanian and the story of immigrants in America, one recipe at a time

Liana Aghajanian and the story of immigrants in America, one recipe at a time

In her blog "Dining in Diaspora," the Detroit-based writer tries to document the complexity of Armenian identity through the lens of food
December 14, 2017
Olga Kreimer

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”

—Andrew Wyeth, American painter
December 13, 2017
Kari Howard
Jack Hitt on the birth of live-action TV news in "What Goes Up"

Jack Hitt on the birth of live-action TV news in “What Goes Up”

For Epic magazine, Hitt writes about a daredevil helicopter pilot for a Phoenix station who "kept breaking the fourth wall of journalism by beating the cops"
December 12, 2017
Katia Savchuk
Poetry finds a (calming) home in the hurly-burly of 21st century New York

Poetry finds a (calming) home in the hurly-burly of 21st century New York

The Poets House is a hidden literary gem in the city where an "old-fashioned" art and nonfiction thrive — and marginalized voices can learn to freely speak
December 7, 2017
Jasmine Bager

“Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.”

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, from "A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays"
December 6, 2017
Kari Howard
Finding lessons for literary journalism in the poetry of Rust Belt chronicler Phil Levine

Finding lessons for literary journalism in the poetry of Rust Belt chronicler Phil Levine

His poems about his hometown, Detroit, were almost cinematic in a precision of detail that would embarrass the most economic writer
December 5, 2017
Thomas Curwen