Articles

“Well I chased him through them county roads / Till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here / I pulled over to the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear.”

Why is it great? This is the first lyric to feature on “One Great Sentence,” and of course it had to be Springsteen. I chose this not because it’s my…
July 12, 2017
Kari Howard
Notable Narrative: Luke Mogelson and "The Desperate Battle to Destroy ISIS"

Notable Narrative: Luke Mogelson and “The Desperate Battle to Destroy ISIS”

Many journalists covered the battle for Mosul, the capital of the self-styled Caliphate of the Islamic extremist group ISIS. American author Luke Mogelson, on assignment for The New Yorker, viewed…
July 10, 2017
Francesca Borri
Here's some of the best literary journalism about the scourge that is gun violence

Here’s some of the best literary journalism about the scourge that is gun violence

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
June 30, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Mark Follman and "The True Cost of Gun Violence in America"

5(ish) Questions: Mark Follman and “The True Cost of Gun Violence in America”

Few journalists are more versed in guns and gun violence than Mark Follman. As national affairs editor for Mother Jones, Follman has led a series of landmark investigations into everything…
June 29, 2017
Davis Harper

“The fact was it felt good to be angry, to yell and curse, because if she wasn’t angry then she was mostly afraid: of nightmares, of being alone, of the shadows in the church parking lot across the street, of cars backfiring, of the sound of knocking coming now at the door.”

Why is it great? This week we’re spotlighting stellar literary journalism about America’s gun violence epidemic, and this stunning story by Eli Saslow takes an intimate, often uncomfortably close look at…
June 28, 2017
Kari Howard
Thomas Curwen and "Surgeon races to save a life during L.A.'s shooting season"

Thomas Curwen and “Surgeon races to save a life during L.A.’s shooting season”

The Los Angeles Times writer, who watched a doctor operate on a teen gunshot victim, talks about his enduring passion for stories that depict “the split-second events that change the…
June 27, 2017
Davis Harper
Notable Narrative: Jason Fagone and “What Bullets Do to Bodies”

Notable Narrative: Jason Fagone and “What Bullets Do to Bodies”

The writer talks about his Huffington Post Highline profile of a trauma surgeon, and wanting readers to get a “visceral sense of what physically happens inside a person when he’s…
June 26, 2017
Davis Harper
It's officially summer: Don't forget to take some great reads along to the beach

It’s officially summer: Don’t forget to take some great reads along to the beach

This week I celebrated the summer solstice watching a fiddle band atop a hill with sweeping views of the Maine coast and hillsides as the sun slowly lowered into a…
June 23, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Bonnie Ford and "The Promise Rio Couldn't Keep"

5(ish) Questions: Bonnie Ford and “The Promise Rio Couldn’t Keep”

The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics offered a host of memorable storylines: 28-time medal winner Michael Phelps’ final race, Ryan Lochte’s bizarre fabrication of a gunpoint robbery, and the…
June 22, 2017
Kara Voght

“We cross our bridges as we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and the presumption that once our eyes watered.”

Why is it great? Tom Stoppard is one of our greatest wordsmiths, wildly intelligent and witty, while still revealing the pathos of his characters. This line is a perfect example…
June 21, 2017
Kari Howard