Jill U. Adams

Jumpstart your writing routine: coffee, journals, sketches and postcards

By Jill U. Adams• Personal Essays• February 4, 2021

I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. However, I did launch a new morning routine. Every morning I get up, make coffee, get the woodstove going, sit in my reading chair, and: write three pages in my … Read more

“Iowa is a fairy tale.”

By Jill U. Adams• One Great Moment• February 14, 2020

Editor’s note: The sentence in our headline is not the One Great Sentence flagged by Storyboard contributor Jill U. Adams. It’s the opening sentence of a profile of Iowa that sets up the sentence Adams really wrote about. “Somewhere between … Read more

An investigative journalist tries his hand at a true crime series for middle schoolers

By Jill U. Adams• Strictly Q&A• July 2, 2019

As a reporter, Bryan Denson seems to have done it all — working the police beat, writing longform narratives, teaming up on big investigative features, and producing a nonfiction book. While a reporter at The Oregonian, he was … Read more

High notes from the keynotes

By Caren Chesler, Jill U. Adams and Madeline Bodin• Narrative News• March 29, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2o19 Power of Narrative conference at Boston University was a full immersion into the craft, challenges and characters of story work. We are scrambling to mine as many of those riches as we can, … Read more

Golden nuggets from the rich river of narrative nonfiction

By Caren Chesler, Jill U. Adams and Madeline Bodin• Story Craft• March 28, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2o19 Power of Narrative conference at Boston University was a full immersion into the craft, challenges and characters of story work. We are scrambling to mine as many of those riches as we can … Read more

“She stares at me, but it feels like she’s looking at who I used to be, her little girl with ponytails and a snaggletooth who swore she was a Powerpuff Girl.”

By Jill U. Adams• One Great Moment• March 20, 2019

This sentence contains everything that good narrative writing should. There’s the specific detail of the narrator, and there’s universality — the wonder we humans experience when faced with a child growing up. It seems remarkable to me that we … Read more

“I’m thinking longer term, in geologic time, doing just what I can each day and not putting it off because it won’t be brilliant.”

By Jill U. Adams• One Great Moment• February 20, 2019

When I encountered this sentence, I took it personally. I like being brilliant. I like it so much that I don’t write as much as I should. It’s uncomfortable to start writing, to try to flesh out a thought, … Read more

About Jill U. Adams