Articles

“I’d rather go down in history as one lone Negro who dared to tell the government that it had done a dastardly thing than to save my skin by taking back what I said.”

Why is it so great? I found this quote from the absolutely amazing Ida B. Wells after The New York Times righted an old wrong by publishing her obit —…
March 28, 2018
Kari Howard
Amy Padnani on The New York Times' “Overlooked” obituary series

Amy Padnani on The New York Times’ “Overlooked” obituary series

When Amy Padnani moved from The New York Times’ news desk to its obits department last year, she was charged with the task of “exploring different ways of storytelling with…
March 27, 2018
Julie Schwietert Collazo
As spring begins, a last look at winter and its juxtaposition of beauty and hardship

As spring begins, a last look at winter and its juxtaposition of beauty and hardship

This week we celebrated the vernal equinox, this moment of rebirth and hope as we ease out of winter. (Of course, New England got hit with another snowstorm, as if…
March 23, 2018
Kari Howard
In Sicily, an old oral storytelling tradition tries to renew itself in the 21st century

In Sicily, an old oral storytelling tradition tries to renew itself in the 21st century

The third-grade students in Misterbianco, a small town at the foot of Mount Etna in eastern Sicily, watched, rapt, as the heavy puppets moved on a school auditorium stage. The…
March 22, 2018
Stefania D'Ignoti

“The Revolutionary Hill Estates had not been designed to accommodate a tragedy.”

This 1961 book has haunted me since I first read it about 15 years ago. Written at the birth of suburbia, and the accompanying conformity of such neighborhoods, it tells…
March 21, 2018
Kari Howard
Katharine Seelye and "Life on an Island: Silence, Beauty and a Long Wait for the Ferry"

Katharine Seelye and “Life on an Island: Silence, Beauty and a Long Wait for the Ferry”

“Have you ever heard the absolute silence?”So asks a young lobsterman on Maine’s Matinicus Island, one of the handful of people who live year-round on the island, 22 miles out…
March 20, 2018
Kari Howard
Polar opposites: Exploring some very cool writing, the he said/she said version

Polar opposites: Exploring some very cool writing, the he said/she said version

As a near-spring Nor’easter hit New England this week, we showcased two recent stories about polar exploration. What intrigued me were the very different perspectives of the writers and subjects.…
March 16, 2018
Kari Howard
Eva Holland and "Get Schooled in the No-Nonsense Art of Survival"

Eva Holland and “Get Schooled in the No-Nonsense Art of Survival”

Adventure narratives thrive on the nearness (or near miss) of doom’s heavy paw, but Eva Holland gives readers something other than a saga of suffering and survival in her recent…
March 15, 2018
Julia Shipley

“If I were hauling 600 miles across the Arctic, I’d choose J. for stamina and his uncomplaining nature … “

“If I were hauling 600 miles across the Arctic, I’d choose J. for stamina and his uncomplaining nature; A. for her medical skills and ability to play music; N. because…
March 14, 2018
Julia Shipley
Writing through a whiteout: David Grann and "The White Darkness"

Writing through a whiteout: David Grann and “The White Darkness”

The lede came to David Grann a year before he would complete his epic story and a year after the events it describes:“The man felt like a speck in the…
March 13, 2018
Steve Oney