Author

Julia Shipley

@JuliaShipley3
After the fires: A surprising story of a haunted hero and the ashes of regret

After the fires: A surprising story of a haunted hero and the ashes of regret

Who knew there was a beat called “fire coverage,” or it was a job they would learn to love?Certainly not Lizzie Johnson, who was covering city hall for The San…
September 18, 2018
Feeding the world – and feeling despair

Feeding the world – and feeling despair

Editor’s note: The tragic news last week of suicides by creative celebrities Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain captured headlines and emotions. But despair does not discriminate. Storyboard contributor Julia Shipley…
June 12, 2018
The Power of Narrative conference captures the #MeToo zeitgeist

The Power of Narrative conference captures the #MeToo zeitgeist

This year’s Power of Narrative conference seemed to capture the #MeToo zeitgeist, with speakers like author Roxane Gay and the Boston Globe’s Sacha Pfeiffer talking about the uncomfortable truths of…
March 29, 2018
Eva Holland and "Get Schooled in the No-Nonsense Art of Survival"

Eva Holland and “Get Schooled in the No-Nonsense Art of Survival”

Adventure narratives thrive on the nearness (or near miss) of doom’s heavy paw, but Eva Holland gives readers something other than a saga of suffering and survival in her recent…
March 15, 2018

“If I were hauling 600 miles across the Arctic, I’d choose J. for stamina and his uncomplaining nature … “

“If I were hauling 600 miles across the Arctic, I’d choose J. for stamina and his uncomplaining nature; A. for her medical skills and ability to play music; N. because…
March 14, 2018
The thing with feathers: Burkhard Bilger and his haute-couture "plumassier"

The thing with feathers: Burkhard Bilger and his haute-couture “plumassier”

Is participatory journalism a good thing? Burkhard Bilger may have pondered that while clinging to the subject of his recent New Yorker profile as the twosome zoomed through Paris on…
February 27, 2018
Finding the story in the parentheses and other adventures with Jeffrey Stern

Finding the story in the parentheses and other adventures with Jeffrey Stern

It wasn’t the sensational headline — “The Real-Life Mad Max Who Battled ISIS in a Bulletproof BMW” — that grabbed my attention. It was the next bit.[pq]”Here is a person…
February 15, 2018
Why's This So Good? (The wonderful) Dan Barry and "The Lost Children of Tuam"

Why’s This So Good? (The wonderful) Dan Barry and “The Lost Children of Tuam”

If Dan Barry has a beat, it is humanity — humanity as it reckons with its triumphs and travesties, and, sometimes, its profound secrets.[pq]Why does Barry begin a story about…
January 15, 2018

“There is a time to write and a time to walk and a time to reflect and a time to act and I come unwillingly to this journal today, wanting to do something less reflective and feeling that I sometimes strip myself of my most reasonable attributes, bent over this machine.”

In August 1991, I read John Cheever’s journal excerpts published in The New Yorker. I was a 19-year-old college dropout, a waitress, and in the half hour before starting my shift,…
January 10, 2018

“We were taken to the ‘Oh, My God, Corner,’ a position near the escalator. People arriving see the long line and say “Oh, my God!” and it’s an elf’s job to calm them down and explain that it will take no longer than an hour to see Santa.”

It’s hard to cull just one sentence from Sedaris’ embedded reporting on being a helper at Santaland, a place he describes as “a real wonderland” with a path taking visitors…
December 20, 2017