Articles

“Hazel Morse was a large, fair woman of the type that incites some men when they use the word ‘blonde’ to click their tongues and wag their heads roguishly.”

Why is it great? With this opening line to her famous short story, Parker does so many things: She gives us an image of Hazel that’s Kodachrome clear: I can…
March 8, 2017
Kari Howard
Notable Narrative: Bernt Jakob Oksnes and "The Baby in the Plastic Bag"

Notable Narrative: Bernt Jakob Oksnes and “The Baby in the Plastic Bag”

The words appear on a blank white screen, accompanied by an atonal, ominous peal of music.“One frosty October morning, a newborn baby boy is found inside a plastic bag inside…
March 7, 2017
Kari Howard
The politics of language, from terrorists vs. freedom fighters to "carnage" in Chicago

The politics of language, from terrorists vs. freedom fighters to “carnage” in Chicago

We seem to have two recurring motifs going on this week on Storyboard — animals and the politicization of language. On the animal front, we have Christopher Solomon’s “cute even when…
March 3, 2017
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Latino USA producer Marlon Bishop on the backstory of the NPR show’s most downloaded episode ever

5(ish) Questions: Latino USA producer Marlon Bishop on the backstory of the NPR show’s most downloaded episode ever

A show that was more than a year in the making about the controversial prisoner Oscar López Rivera scored journalism gold, coming out just days after the Puerto Rican was…
March 2, 2017
Julie Schwietert Collazo

“He watched a mouse saunter up the electric cord leading to the nonfunctioning clock over the hotel bar and asked the Chinese waitress in German whether it was a tiger.”

This vivid, funny, terrific sentence could have been drawn from Lewis Carroll, but it’s from the middle of a deadline story on the frustrations of two “peace commissions” that were unable to keep…
March 1, 2017
Steve Chawkins
Annotation Tuesday! Christopher Solomon and "The Detective of Northern Oddities"

Annotation Tuesday! Christopher Solomon and “The Detective of Northern Oddities”

Profiles are hard. Too often they’re drenched in the writer’s attempts to make the subject seem larger than life. But good profiles have the opposite effect: Through their honesty and…
February 28, 2017
Allison Eck
Some longform stories that will chill you in more ways than one

Some longform stories that will chill you in more ways than one

This week we’re getting a sneak preview of spring in Maine, and the two feet of snow is fast melting. But there’s still a bit of a chill in this…
February 24, 2017
Guy Larson and "Merv Curls Lead" -- it's kind of like "The Office" on ice

Guy Larson and “Merv Curls Lead” — it’s kind of like “The Office” on ice

You know when you absentmindedly click on a product and an ad for the thing seems to stalk you online for the rest of your life? (I once thought the…
February 23, 2017
Kari Howard

“The only break from the darkness comes when the sub drops through clusters of bioluminescence that look like stars in the Milky Way.”

Why is it great? This piece about mining companies exploring the bottom of the ocean creates an upside-down outer space. The whole story is a kind of extended metaphor between…
February 22, 2017
Kari Howard
The art of the obituary: It's a dying one

The art of the obituary: It’s a dying one

Forget making little dolls out of corn cobs or embroidering samplers with snippets of homey wisdom on them: If it’s a dying art you’re after, look to the news obituary.[pq]Obit…
February 21, 2017
Steve Chawkins