Articles

The Fever

There are two main characters in this series: first, the illness itself, which ravaged Norfolk and Plymouth, Va., in 1855. It killed one out of three people in the communities…

An Imam in America

We like this series for its scrupulous attention to detail. Its descriptive passages pop with verbs; we are right there, walking with the imam as he starts his morning. Elliott…

Learning to Hit a Lick

Several things make this two-part narrative notable. The first and most visually obvious is the method of attribution. The footnotes illustrate Shalhoup’s vigorous reporting; they point to her ability to…

The Journey of Judge Joan Lefkow

This piece was a finalist for a 2006 Pulitzer Prize. U.S.District Judge Joan Lefkow became famous after a man whose case she oversaw murdered her husband and mother in the…

A $65 Table, and a Tale to Tell Around It

We like the spareness of this story’s telling, the nodding at the theme of human connection, but the stepping back from it, just as the events themselves do. We like…

Suddenly It Was Up to Shane

Padilla set out to follow the recovery of Jeff May, one of the victims of the Red Lake school shootings — but found little narrative there. So Padilla and his…

Violent Femmes

In this first-person piece, we liked the wealth of dialogue, rich scenes, vivid characters and satisfying narrative arc. Darr uses a familiar structure: She starts the piece with the moment…

Plagued by Fear

This 7-part series’ strengths, it seems to us, are first, its ability to keep readers wondering, its handling of suspense. (Notice the suspenseful section endings in particular.) Second, the series…

In Balraj’s Realm

We admire this piece for the way its tone and content match its protagonist’s own qualities. Elizabeth Balraj is the exacting and dignified coroner of Cuyahoga County. Long’s writing, too,…

The Boy Monk

This series was written and reported by Anh Do and Teri Sforza. We admired the masterful blend of emotional material—the boy’s and his family’s experience of separation, loss—with engaging explications…