Author

Notable Narrative: Daniel Miller and the Los Angeles Times' “Selling Stardom”

Notable Narrative: Daniel Miller and the Los Angeles Times’ “Selling Stardom”

The show business reporter takes a walk on the seamier side of Hollywood, and meets a lot of wannabes with broken dreams (plus an agent who breaks down in front…
March 16, 2017

“This is a love story, and I apologize; it was inadvertent. But I want it clearly understood from the start that I don’t expect it to turn out well.”

Why is it great? Have you ever read a book and found it hard to get over a terrible first line? You want to move on, and the other 100,000…
March 15, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Diarmid Mogg and the crazy-compelling "Small Town Noir"

5(ish) Questions: Diarmid Mogg and the crazy-compelling “Small Town Noir”

The Scotsman's website is a rabbit hole of midcentury mug shots and the stories of the everyday people of a Pennsylvania town at probably the worst moment in their lives
March 14, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Jesse Lenz and The Collective Quarterly magazine

5(ish) Questions: Jesse Lenz and The Collective Quarterly magazine

The co-founder of the "slow journalism" publication says its aim is to create an outlet for journalists who are willing take time with a story and “show genuine interest in…
March 9, 2017

“Hazel Morse was a large, fair woman of the type that incites some men when they use the word ‘blonde’ to click their tongues and wag their heads roguishly.”

Why is it great? With this opening line to her famous short story, Parker does so many things: She gives us an image of Hazel that’s Kodachrome clear: I can…
March 8, 2017
Notable Narrative: Bernt Jakob Oksnes and "The Baby in the Plastic Bag"

Notable Narrative: Bernt Jakob Oksnes and “The Baby in the Plastic Bag”

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet bucked the short-attention-span trend by committing to a nine-part serial -- and it paid off both in readers and a powerful narrative about an infant left…
March 7, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Latino USA producer Marlon Bishop on the backstory of the NPR show’s most downloaded episode ever

5(ish) Questions: Latino USA producer Marlon Bishop on the backstory of the NPR show’s most downloaded episode ever

A show that was more than a year in the making about the controversial prisoner Oscar López Rivera scored journalism gold, coming out just days after the Puerto Rican was…
March 2, 2017

“He watched a mouse saunter up the electric cord leading to the nonfunctioning clock over the hotel bar and asked the Chinese waitress in German whether it was a tiger.”

This vivid, funny, terrific sentence could have been drawn from Lewis Carroll, but it’s from the middle of a deadline story on the frustrations of two “peace commissions” that were unable to keep…
March 1, 2017
Annotation Tuesday! Christopher Solomon and "The Detective of Northern Oddities"

Annotation Tuesday! Christopher Solomon and “The Detective of Northern Oddities”

For his piece in Outside magazine, the writer talks about the trickiness of reporting on climate change and the importance of pacing: "readers can feel when the story loses its…
February 28, 2017
Guy Larson and "Merv Curls Lead" — it's kind of like "The Office" on ice

Guy Larson and “Merv Curls Lead” — it’s kind of like “The Office” on ice

In his 1999 piece on a would-be impresario of the quirky sport of curling, the Canadian writer creates a David Brent-like character: at times an insufferable blusterer, at others an…
February 23, 2017