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.

Haven't read those Pulitzer winners yet? Here's some great storytelling in this year's batch

Haven’t read those Pulitzer winners yet? Here’s some great storytelling in this year’s batch

This week, journalists had their version of the Oscars (minus the red carpet and catty remarks about who-wore-what). The Pulitzer announcements are always an electric moment in a newsroom.  Back in…
April 14, 2017

“I go to sleep every night knowing I have the blood of so many on my hands and no amount of soap could ever wash these stains away.”

Why is it great? Chivers just won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his magazine profile of Sam Siatta, a Marine suffering from PTSD. How did he make a…
April 12, 2017
The politics of power: through Billie Holiday's voice and an Iranian blogger's words

The politics of power: through Billie Holiday’s voice and an Iranian blogger’s words

This week has me thinking of the dynamics of power, racial and sexual, governmental and personal. An Iranian blogger who goes to prison for six years for his words. The…
April 7, 2017

“But then the not-knowing returns, and it keeps him awake at night.”

Why is it great? For the second week in a row, our One Great Sentence comes from a gifted journalist who has just left us. Last week, the writer was…
April 5, 2017
A week where journalism, poetry, fiction and music converge = a dream week

A week where journalism, poetry, fiction and music converge = a dream week

Journalism, poetry, fiction and music all came together on Storyboard this week, so yes, call it a dream week for me. I love seeing how the same skills apply whether…
March 31, 2017

“She is the mother of two fatherless children and she was walking into the history of this country because she was showing everybody who felt old and helpless and without hope that she had this terrible strength that everybody needed so badly.”

Like a lot of people, last week I reread the story that made Jimmy Breslin famous. It has his greatest hallmark: writing about the little guy, in this case Clifton Pollard, who…
March 29, 2017
The Power of Narrative conference: how the tools of poetry can help journalists

The Power of Narrative conference: how the tools of poetry can help journalists

At last year’s Power of Narrative conference at Boston University, the poet Verandah Porche asked Gay Talese which women writers he admired.[pq]“All of us seem to be on the beat…
March 27, 2017
The oranges of John McPhee, on the page and on backyard trees

The oranges of John McPhee, on the page and on backyard trees

This week I left the snows of New England for a visit to my old stomping grounds in California. It was a bit head-spinning for a couple of reasons: When…
March 24, 2017

“Henry Ford believed the soul of a person is located in the last breath and so captured the last breath of his best friend Thomas Edison in a test tube and kept it evermore.”

Why is it great? This line, from the poet Elizabeth Alexander’s beautiful memoir about the death of her husband, knocked me out on a couple levels. First, I had no…
March 22, 2017
The unexpected benefits of a springtime blizzard: reading a book by candlelight

The unexpected benefits of a springtime blizzard: reading a book by candlelight

A spring blizzard this week left me without power for 16 hours, and at first I felt unmoored because there was no heat, no light — and no Internet connection.…
March 17, 2017