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Storylines shot through with darkness and despair, but also flashes of loyalty and love

Storylines shot through with darkness and despair, but also flashes of loyalty and love

A feeling of loyalty and loss runs through this week’s posts. In Iraq, a local SWAT team tries to avenge their families — and save their city. In a Bruce…
July 14, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Mary Pols and the rural lyricism of "Death of a Dairyman"

5(ish) Questions: Mary Pols and the rural lyricism of “Death of a Dairyman”

The Portland Press Herald writer talks about her story on a man who connected a community, and chafing at the "Cabot Cove-ization" of Maine writing
July 13, 2017

“Well I chased him through them county roads / Till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here / I pulled over to the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear.”

Why is it great? This is the first lyric to feature on “One Great Sentence,” and of course it had to be Springsteen. I chose this not because it’s my…
July 12, 2017
Notable Narrative: Luke Mogelson and "The Desperate Battle to Destroy ISIS"

Notable Narrative: Luke Mogelson and “The Desperate Battle to Destroy ISIS”

Many journalists covered the battle for Mosul, the capital of the self-styled Caliphate of the Islamic extremist group ISIS. American author Luke Mogelson, on assignment for The New Yorker, viewed…
July 10, 2017
Here's some of the best literary journalism about the scourge that is gun violence

Here’s some of the best literary journalism about the scourge that is gun violence

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
June 30, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Mark Follman and "The True Cost of Gun Violence in America"

5(ish) Questions: Mark Follman and “The True Cost of Gun Violence in America”

The Mother Jones reporter talks about his landmark investigation into the staggering price of the firearms epidemic: an estimated $229 billion a year
June 29, 2017

“The fact was it felt good to be angry, to yell and curse, because if she wasn’t angry then she was mostly afraid: of nightmares, of being alone, of the shadows in the church parking lot across the street, of cars backfiring, of the sound of knocking coming now at the door.”

Why is it great? This week we’re spotlighting stellar literary journalism about America’s gun violence epidemic, and this stunning story by Eli Saslow takes an intimate, often uncomfortably close look at…
June 28, 2017
Thomas Curwen and "Surgeon races to save a life during L.A.'s shooting season"

Thomas Curwen and “Surgeon races to save a life during L.A.’s shooting season”

The Los Angeles Times writer, who watched a doctor operate on a teen gunshot victim, talks about his enduring passion for stories that depict “the split-second events that change the…
June 27, 2017
Notable Narrative: Jason Fagone and “What Bullets Do to Bodies”

Notable Narrative: Jason Fagone and “What Bullets Do to Bodies”

The writer talks about his Huffington Post Highline profile of a trauma surgeon, and wanting readers to get a “visceral sense of what physically happens inside a person when he’s…
June 26, 2017
It's officially summer: Don't forget to take some great reads along to the beach

It’s officially summer: Don’t forget to take some great reads along to the beach

This week I celebrated the summer solstice watching a fiddle band atop a hill with sweeping views of the Maine coast and hillsides as the sun slowly lowered into a…
June 23, 2017