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.

“The only break from the darkness comes when the sub drops through clusters of bioluminescence that look like stars in the Milky Way.”

Why is it great? This piece about mining companies exploring the bottom of the ocean creates an upside-down outer space. The whole story is a kind of extended metaphor between…
February 22, 2017
Meet the phone phreaks, the grandfathers of today's hackers (Russian or otherwise)

Meet the phone phreaks, the grandfathers of today’s hackers (Russian or otherwise)

Just in time for the weekend, here’s a little list of some of the things I’ve been listening to and reading this week, some of it online — Storyboard included,…
February 17, 2017
Get your piping hot National Magazine Awards winners right here!

Get your piping hot National Magazine Awards winners right here!

The American Society of Magazine Editors held its annual Ellies awards gala today, and it was a big night for Mother Jones and The New York Times Magazine.Here’s a handy list of…
February 7, 2017
"I’m here to remind you today that great journalism can also find ordinary, regular people and find the extraordinary in what they do"

“I’m here to remind you today that great journalism can also find ordinary, regular people and find the extraordinary in what they do”

At Harvard's "The Future of News: Journalism in a Post-Truth Era" event, Chicago Tribune reporter Lolly Bowean says that going small can sometimes forge connections -- and overcome divisions --…
February 2, 2017

“What I can hear are occasional coyotes and a constant chorus of ‘Baby the Rain Must Fall’ from the jukebox in the Snake Room next door, and if I were also to hear those dying voices, those Midwestern voices drawn to this lunar country for some unimaginable atavistic rites, ‘rock of ages cleft for me,’ I think I would lose my own reason.”

Why is it great? This essay has a more famous line, which is being quoted a lot these days: “Then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is…
February 1, 2017

“A big pair of garden shears sat on the counter, as foreboding as Chekhov’s gun on the mantel.”

Why is it great? Even without context, this line is tremendous. Playfully riffing off Chekhov’s rule that if you introduce a gun in the first act, it absolutely must go off by…
January 25, 2017
A time of endings: a presidency, and a tree that held lifetimes of memories

A time of endings: a presidency, and a tree that held lifetimes of memories

Just in time for the weekend, here’s a little list of some of the things I’ve been listening to and reading this week, some of it online — Storyboard included,…
January 20, 2017

“Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something.”

Why is it great? Yes, we deliberately launched this cool new feature with the first sentence of one of the most famous magazine articles of all time. Go big or…
January 18, 2017
Inaugurations of a different sort: the launch of two new features on Storyboard!

Inaugurations of a different sort: the launch of two new features on Storyboard!

We're starting up a weekly newsletter -- consider it a Friday treat to your inbox -- and a v. cool thing we're calling One Great Sentence.
January 18, 2017
In flames: journalism under fire, and the terrible beauty of wildfire photography

In flames: journalism under fire, and the terrible beauty of wildfire photography

Just in time for the weekend, here’s a little list of some of the things I’ve been listening to and reading this week, some of it online — Storyboard included,…
January 13, 2017