Author

Andrea Pitzer

@andreapitzer

<a href="https://andreapitzer.com/bio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Andrea Pitzer</strong></a> is the author of three books of narrative nonfiction that explore untold histories. She was the editor of Nieman Storyboard from 2009-2012,

Jared Diamond, The New Yorker and the awkwardness of anecdotes

Jared Diamond, The New Yorker and the awkwardness of anecdotes

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk, in which she described how stereotypes develop when one community has only a single narrative about another. The post…
December 3, 2009

The Washington Post Story Lab: letting readers in on how sausage gets made

Is the future of story watching story unfold? Participating in story as it unfolds? The Washington Post’s Story Lab (which had a soft launch last week and official debut today)…
November 30, 2009
Marc Fisher on The Washington Post's new Story Lab

Marc Fisher on The Washington Post’s new Story Lab

I spoke this morning with Marc Fisher, enterprise editor for local news at The Washington Post. Fisher is heading up the organization’s new Story Lab, which launched this week. See…
November 30, 2009

Killian Mansfield: a holiday lament

Before the Thanksgiving holiday, we step away from the future of story and transmedia discussions to offer a classic print narrative. David Amsden’s “Never Mind the Pity” traces the elegant arc of the…
November 25, 2009
Esquire’s Tom Junod looks for “One Good Man”

Esquire’s Tom Junod looks for “One Good Man”

Esquire’s Tom Junod crawls under his subjects’ public masks and starts asking questions. Junod has long specialized in profiling symbols such as a man falling from the north tower of…
November 23, 2009

Fallout: Brookhaven National Lab’s Legacy in the Pacific

While we love the classic storytelling of Gary Smith or Chris Jones, sometimes a Notable Narrative attracts our attention even if it sits on the border between narrative and straight…
November 20, 2009

Tyler Cowen rails against narrative—can stories make us stupid?

Tyler CowenEarlier this month at the mid-Atlantic TEDx in Baltimore, blogging economist Tyler Cowen gave a 16-minute talk about the dangers of narrative. He spoke about the oft-discussed universal stories…
November 19, 2009
42 Essential 3rd Act Twists: one narrative alternative to storyboards?

42 Essential 3rd Act Twists: one narrative alternative to storyboards?

[First in a series looking at storyboarding projects.]You're almost done with your six-month narrative project, and you realize you have no multimedia elements. Or worse, you're coming upon the end of…
November 10, 2009

The Guardian essay on Hindu super-temples? It might be news to you (and me)

Talking about narrative journalism, The St. Petersburg Times’ Lane DeGregory once told me “One of the stupidest stories I ever did had the biggest response. It was an 'up all…
November 9, 2009

Gary Smith interview on "The Power of One" from Sports Illustrated

Excerpts from a November interview with Gary Smith about his story “The Power of One,” which appeared in Sports Illustrated in September:Q: When did you first hear about Bonnie Richardson?…
November 7, 2009