Articles

“This will happen so fast that one night he will be in the backyard, believing it a perfect place, and by the next night he will have changed and the yard as he imagined it will be gone, and this era of his life will be behind him forever.”

This famous piece by Susan Orlean is one of those stories where it’s hard to pick just one great sentence. You find one, and then another, and then another —…
May 17, 2017
Kari Howard
Feeling the facts: making the case for the sensory connection in literary journalism

Feeling the facts: making the case for the sensory connection in literary journalism

If you wanted to do a word cloud of the literary journalism conference I just attended in Nova Scotia, the word “feel” might be the largest image. Then imagination. And…
May 15, 2017
Kari Howard
Literary journalism gets some love, from "Hiroshima" to Shane Bauer's prison exposé

Literary journalism gets some love, from “Hiroshima” to Shane Bauer’s prison exposé

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
May 12, 2017
Kari Howard
The roadblocks, and the dangers, for investigative journalists in the Arab world

The roadblocks, and the dangers, for investigative journalists in the Arab world

A scene from the annual Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism conference.As the Arab Spring began to topple a wave of repressive governments six years ago, many members of the fledgling…
May 11, 2017
Abby Sewell

“There’s no room for hate in ice cream,” Dennis liked to remind himself.

Why is it great? We annotated this wonderful story last year, and the focus of the annotation was the rarity of humor in longform. This line makes me laugh even…
May 10, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Josh O'Kane and "The Ballad of Fogarty's Cove"

5(ish) Questions: Josh O’Kane and “The Ballad of Fogarty’s Cove”

The word “lament” is a sadly beautiful thing, its layers and meanings distinct, yet entwined. In music, it is a song of loss, of missing someone or something that is…
May 9, 2017
Kari Howard
Let's celebrate some newsroom heroes: from Gene Roberts to Latina journalists

Let’s celebrate some newsroom heroes: from Gene Roberts to Latina journalists

This was a special week on Storyboard, because we shone a spotlight on some journalists who often don’t get the recognition they deserve. Latina journalists, a minority within a minority…
May 5, 2017
Kari Howard

“She was beautiful but when she tasted the water from the glass on her lectern she smiled sadly as if it were bitter for, in spite of her civil zeal, she had a taste for the melancholy – for the smell of orange rinds and wood smoke – that was extraordinary.”

Why is it great? When I moved back to New England last year after nearly a lifetime away, John Cheever’s debut novel about a quirky New England family was the…
May 4, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Legendary editor Gene Roberts reflects on a lifetime in journalism

5(ish) Questions: Legendary editor Gene Roberts reflects on a lifetime in journalism

Filmmaker David Layton isn’t a stranger to the newsroom. Before he produced and directed documentaries, he was a newspaper reporter, so perhaps it’s not surprising that his next project, “The…
May 3, 2017
Julie Schwietert Collazo
How Michelle Garcia told the story of Juárez, a city lost to violence, through its dogs

How Michelle Garcia told the story of Juárez, a city lost to violence, through its dogs

The Al Jazeera America piece, reported with Mexican reporter Ignacio Alvarado Alvarez, haunts with its indelible portrait of pets paying the price when a terrorized place goes feral
May 2, 2017
Carolina A. Miranda