Author

Dale Keiger

@dkeiger1

Dale Keiger has been a scribbler-for-hire for more than 45 years. Most recently, he was editor of Johns Hopkins Magazine. He is author of the just-published anthology “The Man Who Signed the City: Portraits of Remarkable People,” from 10,000 Days Press. He writes a newsletter of essays in “The Joggled Mind.”

13 ways to consider an interview

13 ways to consider an interview

A magazine writer and editor shares real-life lessons from 50 years of interviewing: It's not a conversation and you are not a supplicant
October 10, 2024
A "wise and lovely" essay enchants the reader in a fellow writer

A “wise and lovely” essay enchants the reader in a fellow writer

A friend and former colleague analyzes the grace in a meditation by Ann Finkbeiner about the passing of seasons and years
October 24, 2023
A profile of rival athletic greats becomes an exploration of a great friendship

A profile of rival athletic greats becomes an exploration of a great friendship

Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins aces an off-court story about Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, competition, cancer, battles and bonds
August 10, 2023
Getting out of your head ~ and out of the way of a true story

Getting out of your head ~ and out of the way of a true story

By Dale KeigerIf you write for a living and stay with it long enough you will accumulate a bulging folder of journeyman’s work. You don’t renounce it and you don’t…
April 6, 2023
The real "talent" behind great writing? Passion and practice

The real “talent” behind great writing? Passion and practice

A writer and editor challenges the notion of born talent, and argues that superior skills are earned through a drive to learn the craft and do the work
January 4, 2023
Not just SayWhat, but SezWho?

Not just SayWhat, but SezWho?

For a time in the early 1990s, I wrote narrative journalism for a business magazine. One of my better efforts recounted the fight for control of an investment bank. Someone…
August 12, 2022
The making of Joan Didion: From fuzzy facts to peerless prose

The making of Joan Didion: From fuzzy facts to peerless prose

Joan Didion died on December 23, 2021, and by Christmas internet searches were returning page after page of obituaries that described her as a “peerless prose stylist.” She has long…
January 14, 2022
Ernest Hemingway's true and lasting writing lessons

Ernest Hemingway’s true and lasting writing lessons

A new documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explores the complexity of the man, and the legacy of his work
May 4, 2021
How protest songs echo — and sometimes lead — the stories of our times

How protest songs echo — and sometimes lead — the stories of our times

On a warm spring night in 1974, I was an Ohio University student reporter amid a riot. Not a riot against repression or inequality or injustice or the Vietnam War,…
July 29, 2020
Calling out Olympic officials' past failures as coronavirus threatens the 2020 Games

Calling out Olympic officials’ past failures as coronavirus threatens the 2020 Games

Sally Jenkins has been writing for the sports section of the Washington Post going on 20 years. The Associated Press and the Society for Professional Journalists have named her the…
March 18, 2020