Author

Political footnote or comeback kid? Robert Sanchez goes for a ride with Tom Tancredo

In “Down But Not Out,” our latest Notable Narrative, writer Robert Sanchez checks in with Tom Tancredo, who was a candidate for governor of Colorado just a few short months…

Evan Ratliff on The Atavist: narrative throwback or the future of nonfiction storytelling?

We talked by phone this week with Evan Ratliff, one of the founders of The Atavist, a just-minted publishing house that makes original narrative nonfiction available on digital mobile reading…

What we’re watching: two takes on documentary

Lately, we’ve been pondering the full range of documentary projects. From a storytelling standpoint, “Hell and Back Again” represents one end of the spectrum. The film, which won the documentary…

The Goggles on "Welcome to Pine Point": digital narrative chases memory and loss

What if your hometown disappeared, literally vanished from the map? How would you hold onto it? Would the community of people who had lived there continue? "Welcome to Pine Point"…

Time's David Von Drehle on narrating tragedy and the evolution of his Tucson story

Yesterday, we posted our first Editors’ Roundtable, in which a group of word wizards did their magic on a piece of narrative nonfiction. Our debut story for consideration was “The Real…
February Editors' Roundtable: Time magazine takes on the Tucson shootings

February Editors’ Roundtable: Time magazine takes on the Tucson shootings

The narrative selected for discussion by our first-ever Editors’  Roundtable is “The Real Lesson of the Tucson Tragedy” by David Von Drehle. Appearing in Time magazine five days after the shooting of…

Death and football: reconstructing the last days of Max Gilpin

In our latest Notable Narrative, “The Boy Who Died of Football,” Sports Illustrated senior writer Thomas Lake takes on the collapse of high school football player Max Gilpin during team…

Richard Just on long-form journalism and online cover stories at The New Republic

Last week, The New Republic began posting "online cover stories" on its website. Announcing the move, the magazine's new editor, Richard Just, wrote about his belief  that "beautifully crafted, methodically…
Keeping it real: how round characters grow from the seeds of detail

Keeping it real: how round characters grow from the seeds of detail

When I first read the New Journalism manifestos by Tom Wolfe in the late 1970s, they changed forever my vision of narrative. In spite of my Ph.D. in English, I…

The Justice League of narrative? Even better: it's the roster of our new Editors' Roundtable

Earlier this week, we announced a new offering on Storyboard – an Editors’ Roundtable, in which a stellar group of editors will collectively analyze a piece of narrative journalism. We invited…