Articles

Lessons from biographer Robert Caro's instructive mini-memoir "Working"

Lessons from biographer Robert Caro’s instructive mini-memoir “Working”

If there were no Robert Caro, he could not easily be invented. Consider the job description: Commit your career to exhaustive research into the lives of two legendarily powerful men,…
October 15, 2019
Don Nelson
"The third is when you can make a basket without worrying about whether it is good enough."

“The third is when you can make a basket without worrying about whether it is good enough.”

—From "Deep River," a novel by Karl Marlantes
October 11, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
Stories that unfold — and pain that is measured — from the ground up

Stories that unfold — and pain that is measured — from the ground up

You can almost smell the cedar-hewn totem poles and see them rise from the soil, so evocative is “We Didn’t Stand A Chance,” Joshua Hunt’s personal essay about opioid abuse…
October 9, 2019
Trevor Pyle
Subjectivity, hugs and craft: Podcasting as extreme narrative journalism

Subjectivity, hugs and craft: Podcasting as extreme narrative journalism

The literary journalism movement unleashed by Capote, Didion, Mailer and Wolfe in the 1960s is reinventing itself in a remarkably powerful way
October 8, 2019
Siobhan McHugh
"How dare you..."

“How dare you…”

—Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, to the United Nations
September 27, 2019
Tom Warhover
"Life is too short to write something boring."

“Life is too short to write something boring.”

A conversation with Los Angeles native and magazine journalist Mary Melton, who profiled a famous photographer in 36 exposures, as in a roll of film
September 26, 2019
Kim Cross
The story in the music — and the music in how the story is written

The story in the music — and the music in how the story is written

I fall to pieces every time I hear a recording of Patsy Cline singing “Crazy” or “Sweet Dreams” — or “I Fall to Pieces” — and it’s not just because…
September 26, 2019
Chuck Haga
"Problems that are not seen cannot be addressed."

“Problems that are not seen cannot be addressed.”

—From "She Said," by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times
September 20, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
When gun violence visits, a pastor finds faith and a reporter finds those not noticed

When gun violence visits, a pastor finds faith and a reporter finds those not noticed

“Pittsburgh. El Paso. San Bernardino. Las Vegas. Aurora. Orlando. Sandy Hook. Isla Vista. Gilroy. Colorado Springs.”David Montero’s voice trails off.  “I just feel like there are obvious ones I’m missing.…
September 19, 2019
Chip Scanlan
When gun violence visits, a workaday mayor — and hard-working journalist — respond

When gun violence visits, a workaday mayor — and hard-working journalist — respond

By early August of this year, 253 American cities had been added to the map of mass shootings. For a day or two after yet another event, officials in these…
September 18, 2019
Chip Scanlan