Articles

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby."
August 9, 2017
Kari Howard
How a midcareer print writer mastered the "magic stick" in a 9-week radio Hogwarts

How a midcareer print writer mastered the “magic stick” in a 9-week radio Hogwarts

Nearly two years ago, I was one of dozens of Los Angeles Times reporters who took a buyout and left the paper. I liked my job almost all the time.…
August 8, 2017
Lee Romney
Notable Narrative: Nicole Lucas Haimes and "Who Killed Julian Pierce?"

Notable Narrative: Nicole Lucas Haimes and “Who Killed Julian Pierce?”

The writer and documentary filmmaker talks about a story on a murdered Native American activist that was nearly 30 years in the making -- and became an obsession
August 3, 2017
Katia Savchuk

“Imagine me; I shall not exist if you do not imagine me; try to discern the doe in me, trembling in the forest of my own iniquity; let’s even smile a little.”

—Vladimir Nabokov, "Lolita."
August 2, 2017
Kari Howard
Why's This So Good? David Foster Wallace and the brilliant "Consider the Lobster"

Why’s This So Good? David Foster Wallace and the brilliant “Consider the Lobster”

Take a moment to bask in the splendor of the piece that maddened many Gourmet readers in 2004
August 1, 2017
Ryan Marnane
Katherine Boo, Sarah Lyall and Harper Lee: It's grrl power week on Storyboard

Katherine Boo, Sarah Lyall and Harper Lee: It’s grrl power week on Storyboard

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
July 28, 2017
Kari Howard
Sarah Lyall and (the hilarious) "Paying a Price for 8 Days of Flying in America"

Sarah Lyall and (the hilarious) “Paying a Price for 8 Days of Flying in America”

The New York Times writer asks, “How did air travel, which once seemed so glamorous and exciting, turn into a sadomasochistic pas de deux between the industry and the passenger?”
July 27, 2017
Julia Shipley

“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.”

—Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
July 26, 2017
Kari Howard
Katherine Boo's 15 rules for narrative nonfiction — now this is a "must-read"

Katherine Boo’s 15 rules for narrative nonfiction — now this is a “must-read”

At the Mayborn Conference for storytellers, the Pulitzer winner warns against falling in love with the craft too much, and says that “getting it right matters way more than whether…
July 25, 2017
Katia Savchuk
On identity: men who created it, women who lost it, a writer who escaped it

On identity: men who created it, women who lost it, a writer who escaped it

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
July 21, 2017
Kari Howard