Articles

Think it's a new thing, journalists being called enemies of the people? Read on

Think it’s a new thing, journalists being called enemies of the people? Read on

Two journalist heroes are featured in this week’s posts. One of them, literary sportswriter Frank Deford, died this week, and I’m not sure we’ll see his like again. Read the…
June 2, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Dana Priest and the "terrorism industrial complex" post 9/11

5(ish) Questions: Dana Priest and the “terrorism industrial complex” post 9/11

As a college sophomore in 2005, I read Dana Priest’s report about “black sites” –far-flung secret prisons overseas that the CIA used to house terrorist suspects captured from the battlefields.…
June 1, 2017
Jessica Buchleitner

“He had gone into another room, to where the buffet was, after he had watched the 12 rounds when he was the heavyweight champeen of the world, back in that last indelible summer when America dared yet dream that it could run and hide from the world, when the handsomest boy loved the prettiest girl, when streetcars still clanged and fistfights were fun, and the smoke hung low when Maggie went off to Paradise.”

Frank Deford died this week, and I’m not sure sportswriters will see his like again. The beautiful rhythm of his language was some kind of wonderful. I love this bit…
May 31, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Phoebe Zerwick and "The Last Days of Darryl Hunt"

5(ish) Questions: Phoebe Zerwick and “The Last Days of Darryl Hunt”

On her first weekend at The Winston-Salem Journal in 1987, Phoebe Zerwick’s new coworkers took her to a famous crime scene: the place where a man named Darryl Hunt had…
May 30, 2017
Julie Schwietert Collazo
A darkness runs through it: a journalist gunned down, a small town's secrets

A darkness runs through it: a journalist gunned down, a small town’s secrets

A darkness runs through this week’s post. Most disturbing is the interview with yet another Mexican journalist who was later gunned down for being brave enough to write about the vicious…
May 26, 2017
Kari Howard
Notable Narrative: Ben Goldfarb and “The Deliciously Fishy Case Of The 'Codfather'"

Notable Narrative: Ben Goldfarb and “The Deliciously Fishy Case Of The ‘Codfather'”

Ben Goldfarb has found a niche in fish. A freelancer based in New Haven, Conn., he regularly covers commercial fisheries and wildlife conservation for magazines such as Science and Boston…
May 25, 2017
Katia Savchuk

“Did he kill? If he did kill, I would swear that it is with this meticulous, somewhat maniacal, admirably lucid care with which he classifies his notes, drafts his papers. Did he kill? Then it is while whistling a little tune, and wearing an apron for fear of stains.”

Why is it so great? I came across this stunning line (yes, it’s more than one sentence) in a piece in a literary journalism journal about the novelist Colette’s outings as a…
May 24, 2017
Kari Howard
The truth must be told: a conversation with slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez

The truth must be told: a conversation with slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez

Earlier this month, Mexican President President Enrique Peña Nieto met with representatives from the Committee to Protect Journalists and pledged to make the security and protection of journalists a priority.[pq]”No,…
May 22, 2017
Ernesto Priego
A celebration of narrative journalism's differences, and its singular strengths

A celebration of narrative journalism’s differences, and its singular strengths

This week we’re celebrating the things that make literary journalism different from news writing. A focus on felt detail. An embrace of emotion. An acceptance that the decisions made in…
May 19, 2017
Kari Howard
Fake news and true facts, and the licenses taken in pursuit of narrative

Fake news and true facts, and the licenses taken in pursuit of narrative

A decade or so ago, shortly after I became book editor of the Los Angeles Times, I wrote a piece defending the liberties of memoirists. This was in the wake…
May 18, 2017
David L. Ulin