Articles

“He sat in an old chair near a particle board pinned with the yellowed obituaries of steelworker friends who died too early, including Robert Plater. 60. Cancer. A paper target practice figure hung next to the obituaries. Its heart had been blown out.”

—Jeffrey Fleishman, "Here's why Bruce Springsteen's blue-collar heroes have made Donald Trump their rock star," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1016.
April 26, 2017
Kari Howard
The Boston Globe's Malcolm Gay and a story of love, and art, lost to the Holocaust

The Boston Globe’s Malcolm Gay and a story of love, and art, lost to the Holocaust

The writer talks about reporting history in real time as he stumbles on the untold tale of a promising composer killed by the Nazis -- and the woman who has…
April 25, 2017
Katia Savchuk
5 Questions: Anne Helen Petersen and the white supremacists who came for Whitefish

5 Questions: Anne Helen Petersen and the white supremacists who came for Whitefish

The BuzzFeed writer talks about the contradictions of a small Montana town and the West, and why she seeks understanding, not empathy
April 20, 2017
Olga Kreimer

“Barcantier, of Le Kremlin, who had jumped in the river, tried in vain to throttle, aided by his Great Dane, the meddler who was dragging him out.”

—Félix Fénéon, Le Matin, 1906
April 19, 2017
James Geary
5(ish) Questions: David Grann and "Killers of the Flower Moon"

5(ish) Questions: David Grann and “Killers of the Flower Moon”

The author and New Yorker writer talks about his book on a sinister campaign against Osage Indians who had become fabulously wealthy from oil -- and what the murders, and…
April 18, 2017
Frank Bures
Why's This So Good? Hunter S. Thompson and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Why’s This So Good? Hunter S. Thompson and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

It’s hard, I know, to make a case for gonzo journalism in an age when reality is beset by exaggeration, even lies. And yet I’ve found myself drawn back to…
April 13, 2017
David L. Ulin

“I go to sleep every night knowing I have the blood of so many on my hands and no amount of soap could ever wash these stains away.”

—C.J. Chivers, "The Fighter," The New York Times Magazine, December 28, 2016.
April 12, 2017
Kari Howard
Annotation Tuesday! Kent Russell and “They Burn Witches Here”

Annotation Tuesday! Kent Russell and “They Burn Witches Here”

The writer talks about his Huffington Post Highline piece on ritualistic killings in Papua New Guinea -- and the differences between scapegoating in philosophy and in blood-curdling real life
April 11, 2017
Davis Harper
5(ish) Questions: Iran’s "Blogfather" talks algorithms, hyperlinks and the lost art of communication

5(ish) Questions: Iran’s “Blogfather” talks algorithms, hyperlinks and the lost art of communication

Hossein Derakhshan spent six years in an Iranian prison cell; when he came out, the online world had changed -- for the worse, he believes
April 6, 2017
Jasmine Bager

“But then the not-knowing returns, and it keeps him awake at night.”

—Alex Tizon, “In the Land of Missing Persons,” The Atlantic, April 2016.
April 5, 2017
Kari Howard