Articles

A confluence of hard news that demands uncomfortable considerations

A confluence of hard news that demands uncomfortable considerations

All news is the stuff of history. But some deserves more than a dusty archive to be stumbled upon by a research scholar. It is an immediate marker that demands…
June 9, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
How F. Scott Fitzgerald guided the hand and aspirations of a newspaper journalist

How F. Scott Fitzgerald guided the hand and aspirations of a newspaper journalist

Early in my career, while working in Minnesota as a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, I fell in love with F. Scott Fitzgerald, the city’s most famous native…
June 4, 2020
Lisa Grace Lednicer
Reading (Stephen King) to learn to write

Reading (Stephen King) to learn to write

Now for something fun and funky, or at least distracting, but these days I’m sure we could all use fun and funky, or at least distracting. A starter’s guide to…
June 3, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
A day-in-the-life profile of a grocery store during the coronavirus shutdown

A day-in-the-life profile of a grocery store during the coronavirus shutdown

With a cell phone, an eye for evocative detail and 50 pages of notes, Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times turned a day at a grocery store into a…
June 2, 2020
Trevor Pyle
"... the only true medicine I could provide."

“… the only true medicine I could provide.”

—Dr. Jesse Charles, from his time volunteering at Brooklyn Hospital Center during coronavirus
May 29, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
The news joins the rituals of mourning

The news joins the rituals of mourning

EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is published in partnership with our friends at the Poynter InstituteI was half-way through an essay on how the experience of news — especially in the…
May 28, 2020
Roy Peter Clark
Reverse engineering your story or project

Reverse engineering your story or project

A friend reached out this past week, asking if I would chat with a friend of his. The second friend — I’ll call her J — runs a non-profit news…
May 26, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
"When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely."

“When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely.”

—Ernest Hemingway in "A Moveable Feast"
May 20, 2020
Roy Peter Clark
A displaced writer picks up a camera — and falls back in love with learning

A displaced writer picks up a camera — and falls back in love with learning

We’re all reinventing ourselves in this suddenly sideways world. So here’s my reinvention story, and the theme that goes with it: Do it for love.The micro of what I did…
May 19, 2020
Roy Wenzl
Journalism lives at the check-out counter

Journalism lives at the check-out counter

The job I moved back to New Hampshire for was not Shift Supervisor at the local branch of a national drug store chain. Back in February, I folded up five…
May 15, 2020
Hilary Niles