Articles

“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
Syria's "selfie teen" highlights the devastation of war -- and the fog of war

Syria’s “selfie teen” highlights the devastation of war — and the fog of war

The fog of war is especially thick in Syria, where access is nearly impossible for foreign journalists and accounts of the war often reach the outside world via social media.…
March 8, 2018
Abby Sewell

“The American people want someone to articulate their rage for them.”

Why is it so great? I recently watched the movie “Network” again, and it could have been written in 2018 instead of more than 40 years earlier. This line almost…
March 7, 2018
Kari Howard
Pacific Standard's executive editor shares some do's and don'ts on pitching stories

Pacific Standard’s executive editor shares some do’s and don’ts on pitching stories

Jennifer Sahn also mounts a defense of the overwhelmed editor, and why you might not hear back right away when you email
March 6, 2018
Katia Savchuk
Is literary journalism the peacock of the news world? So much useful beauty

Is literary journalism the peacock of the news world? So much useful beauty

It was John Steinbeck’s birthday this week, and I came across this quote by him: “Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and…
March 2, 2018
Kari Howard

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

Why is it so great? The writing in this famous passage is so good that George Orwell wrote a parody of it designed to ridicule the bloated writing of his day:“Objective…
March 1, 2018
Roy Peter Clark
What Journalists Need to Know About Writing Screenplays

What Journalists Need to Know About Writing Screenplays

How many journalists regard the Watergate scandal as a love story? Peter Landesman does and that is, arguably, the key to his success as a screenwriter.Landesman was sitting in a…
February 28, 2018
Ricki Morell
The thing with feathers: Burkhard Bilger and his haute-couture "plumassier"

The thing with feathers: Burkhard Bilger and his haute-couture “plumassier”

Is participatory journalism a good thing? Burkhard Bilger may have pondered that while clinging to the subject of his recent New Yorker profile as the twosome zoomed through Paris on…
February 27, 2018
Julia Shipley
“An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite"

“An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite”

This week’s One Great Sentence by Susan Orlean, referenced in the headline above, could be my journalism mantra. Yes, we must know about the great events and people of our…
February 23, 2018
Kari Howard