Articles

Tracy Kidder in conversation with Darcy Frey, part 1: "Anyone who writes for a living and doesn’t admit to being very lucky is almost certainly insane"

Last week, veteran writer Tracy Kidder offered his reflections on narrative nonfiction a public conversation with current Nieman Fellow Darcy Frey. Part of the Harvard Writers at Work series, the…
October 21, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Death outside a DC nightclub: TBD uses Storify to create a breaking news narrative

Death outside a DC nightclub: TBD uses Storify to create a breaking news narrative

Can social media serve as source material for compelling news narratives? A number of innovative tools and programs have been developed that have interesting à la carte uses or make for beautiful…
October 18, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
"Brèves de Trottoirs": Olivier Lambert and Thomas Salva create a multimedia map of Paris

"Brèves de Trottoirs": Olivier Lambert and Thomas Salva create a multimedia map of Paris

How do you map the life of a city? A Web documentary from writer Olivier Lambert and photojournalist Thomas Salva, “Brèves de Trottoirs,” (literal translation: "Sidewalk Shorts") aims to find…
October 15, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

Ralph Berrier on war, music and memoir: "it fell to me to do it"

We talked this week with Ralph Berrier Jr., Roanoke Times reporter and author of “If Trouble Don't Kill Me.” Recounting 1930s country music history and battles on three continents during…
October 14, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we’re watching: used car sales’ Big Vinny, artists living in uncertain times, and the true price of a dowry

Great visuals can inspire storytellers, even when they’re employed for other ends. Below are a collection of beautiful photos and video used in intriguing ways to evoke a way of…
October 12, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Nobel Prize site offers multimedia smorgasbord; winner Mario Vargas Llosa shows fidelity to print newspapers

Nobel Prize site offers multimedia smorgasbord; winner Mario Vargas Llosa shows fidelity to print newspapers

Photo: Daniele DevotiThe Nobel Prize website has gone cutting edge, or at least modern. Visitors can, for instance, watch Nobel webcasts on a YouTube channel or Tweet greetings to the…
October 7, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

After the Wall: the strange story of German reunification

Narrative journalism can provide a window into distant communities or a link to people you might pass without noticing in daily life, but it also lets readers be flies on…
October 6, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
What's the buzz? Monkeying with story in the hive mind

What’s the buzz? Monkeying with story in the hive mind

We have to start with the monkeys. The infinite number of monkeys that, given their own personal typewriters and an infinite amount of time, would produce the works of William…
October 4, 2010
Peggy Nelson

Move over Lady Gaga; meet Ron Charles (a.k.a. the Totally Hip Video Book Reviewer)

Has book publishing found its savior? Well, probably not, but in August, The Washington Post's Ron Charles made his small-screen debut in the role of a cranky, self-important book reviewer.…
October 1, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we’re reading, in which we contemplate a hit-and-run fatality, the death of Glenn Beck’s mother and the declining lethality of quicksand

One of the things about stories is that for them to be interesting, something usually goes wrong. As a result, a large number of the articles, profiles and essays we…
September 30, 2010
Andrea Pitzer