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.

5(ish) Questions: Patsy Sims and "The Stories We Tell: Classic True Tales by America's Greatest Women Journalists"

5(ish) Questions: Patsy Sims and “The Stories We Tell: Classic True Tales by America’s Greatest Women Journalists”

The 1967 edition of the annual “Best Magazine Articles” anthology has six names on the cover: Gay Talese, Gore Vidal, Stephen Becker, Conrad Aiken, Conrad Knickerbocker and Tom Wolfe. Underneath…
November 7, 2017
For Halloween week, supernatural podcasts and the haunting of Joan Didion

For Halloween week, supernatural podcasts and the haunting of Joan Didion

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
November 3, 2017
The Joan Didion documentary: a nephew's loving portrait of "a cool customer"

The Joan Didion documentary: a nephew’s loving portrait of “a cool customer”

In her memoir about the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion writes about the night she lost the man who can only be described as her other…
November 2, 2017

“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that’s on its mind and can’t make itself understood, and so can’t rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”

Why is it great? For Halloween, I decided to use this wonderfully spooky line from Mark Twain (who in his writing and his speaking was a true master of the…
October 30, 2017
Reporting on racism in America: One writer confronted with rage, another driven by it

Reporting on racism in America: One writer confronted with rage, another driven by it

These words from journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones sum up this week’s posts on racism and white supremacism better than I ever could: “The truth is even though this is fundamental and foundational…
October 27, 2017
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reporting about racial inequality: "What drives me is rage"

Nikole Hannah-Jones on reporting about racial inequality: “What drives me is rage”

New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones doesn’t pretend to be an objective observer of her subject: racial segregation.[pq]”Our job as storytellers – if we want to get people to…
October 26, 2017

“Along with these tots and second-honeymooners, there were Harvard freshmen … “

“Along with these tots and second-honeymooners, there were Harvard freshmen, giving off that peculiar nervous glow created when a quantity of insouciance is saturated with insecurity; thick-necked Army officers with…
October 25, 2017
The power of immersion journalism -- for a year, or the moment we're living in now

The power of immersion journalism — for a year, or the moment we’re living in now

Immersion journalism usually means the kind of reporting that Ted Genoways does: He and his photographer wife spent a year practically living with a soybean farmer and his family in…
October 20, 2017

“There was a kind of autumnal stain in the air that reminded me of the smell of leather work gloves, a high-school locker room at homecoming, the inside of an ancient canvas tent.”

Why is it great? Chabon has tapped into that greatest of sensory effects: the ability of smells to take you back to a place, a moment, a memory. The last…
October 18, 2017
This week Storyboard launched a series on the unicorn of longform: the story pitch

This week Storyboard launched a series on the unicorn of longform: the story pitch

I’m so excited about this series we’ve just launched on Storyboard called “The Pitch,” in which we try to demystify the unicorn of longform: the story pitch. Contributor Katia Savchuk will…
October 13, 2017