Author

Kari Howard

@karihow

I'm the woman who left a dream job as Column One editor at the Los Angeles Times because I wanted to move to Maine. Go figure how happiness works. Former editor of Nieman Storyboard. I love music almost as much as (and sometimes more than) beautiful storytelling, so expect to see that here too.

“This will happen so fast that one night he will be in the backyard, believing it a perfect place, and by the next night he will have changed and the yard as he imagined it will be gone, and this era of his life will be behind him forever.”

This famous piece by Susan Orlean is one of those stories where it’s hard to pick just one great sentence. You find one, and then another, and then another —…
May 17, 2017
Feeling the facts: making the case for the sensory connection in literary journalism

Feeling the facts: making the case for the sensory connection in literary journalism

If you wanted to do a word cloud of the literary journalism conference I just attended in Nova Scotia, the word “feel” might be the largest image. Then imagination. And…
May 15, 2017
Literary journalism gets some love, from "Hiroshima" to Shane Bauer's prison exposé

Literary journalism gets some love, from “Hiroshima” to Shane Bauer’s prison exposé

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
May 12, 2017

“There’s no room for hate in ice cream,” Dennis liked to remind himself.

Why is it great? We annotated this wonderful story last year, and the focus of the annotation was the rarity of humor in longform. This line makes me laugh even…
May 10, 2017
5(ish) Questions: Josh O'Kane and "The Ballad of Fogarty's Cove"

5(ish) Questions: Josh O’Kane and “The Ballad of Fogarty’s Cove”

The word “lament” is a sadly beautiful thing, its layers and meanings distinct, yet entwined. In music, it is a song of loss, of missing someone or something that is…
May 9, 2017
Let's celebrate some newsroom heroes: from Gene Roberts to Latina journalists

Let’s celebrate some newsroom heroes: from Gene Roberts to Latina journalists

This was a special week on Storyboard, because we shone a spotlight on some journalists who often don’t get the recognition they deserve. Latina journalists, a minority within a minority…
May 5, 2017

“She was beautiful but when she tasted the water from the glass on her lectern she smiled sadly as if it were bitter for, in spite of her civil zeal, she had a taste for the melancholy – for the smell of orange rinds and wood smoke – that was extraordinary.”

Why is it great? When I moved back to New England last year after nearly a lifetime away, John Cheever’s debut novel about a quirky New England family was the…
May 4, 2017
C.S. Lewis and Tolkien go to see "Snow White," and D.H. Lawrence goes pulp fiction

C.S. Lewis and Tolkien go to see “Snow White,” and D.H. Lawrence goes pulp fiction

Unlikely pairings seem to be a theme this week. Reporting a story under the influence of mind-altering drugs. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien going to see “Snow White” together. D.H.…
April 28, 2017

“He sat in an old chair near a particle board pinned with the yellowed obituaries of steelworker friends who died too early, including Robert Plater. 60. Cancer. A paper target practice figure hung next to the obituaries. Its heart had been blown out.”

Why is it great? I promise this is the last you’ll see of Springsteen on this site for the foreseeable future. But I had somehow missed this story by one…
April 26, 2017
America and race: a disturbing undercurrent that runs through our past and present

America and race: a disturbing undercurrent that runs through our past and present

The theme of America and race — and, unfortunately, hatred and even murder — runs through this week’s posts. The Osage Indians who were systematically killed for their oil in David…
April 21, 2017