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 lunacy and the sorrow: journalists capturing the sweep of our lives

The lunacy and the sorrow: journalists capturing the sweep of our lives

This week’s posts captured the lunacy and sorrow of life. In the former, writer Mac McClelland talks about her hilariously awful expedition with extreme birders (yes, there is such a…
June 16, 2017
Now's a good time to read some highlights of the global effort to honor Javier Valdez

Now’s a good time to read some highlights of the global effort to honor Javier Valdez

Today, journalists around the world came together to honor slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas on the one-month anniversary of his assassination. The global campaign, known as “Our voice is…
June 15, 2017

“The great mistake is to live in Mexico and to be a journalist.”

Tomorrow, Storyboard and its sister Nieman Foundation outlets, Nieman Lab and Nieman Reports, will join journalists and writers the world over to honor the incredibly brave Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas…
June 14, 2017
"The charm and the pain and the humanity" -- what great storytelling is all about

“The charm and the pain and the humanity” — what great storytelling is all about

A weekly roundup of some favorite things, for your reading and listening pleasure
June 9, 2017

“It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than: Try to be kinder.”

Why is it great? It’s graduation season, so it seemed like a perfect time to revisit this beautiful commencement speech that the writer George Saunders gave at Syracuse University four…
June 7, 2017
Think it's a new thing, journalists being called enemies of the people? Read on

Think it’s a new thing, journalists being called enemies of the people? Read on

Two journalist heroes are featured in this week’s posts. One of them, literary sportswriter Frank Deford, died this week, and I’m not sure we’ll see his like again. Read the…
June 2, 2017

“He had gone into another room, to where the buffet was, after he had watched the 12 rounds when he was the heavyweight champeen of the world, back in that last indelible summer when America dared yet dream that it could run and hide from the world, when the handsomest boy loved the prettiest girl, when streetcars still clanged and fistfights were fun, and the smoke hung low when Maggie went off to Paradise.”

Frank Deford died this week, and I’m not sure sportswriters will see his like again. The beautiful rhythm of his language was some kind of wonderful. I love this bit…
May 31, 2017
A darkness runs through it: a journalist gunned down, a small town's secrets

A darkness runs through it: a journalist gunned down, a small town’s secrets

A darkness runs through this week’s post. Most disturbing is the interview with yet another Mexican journalist who was later gunned down for being brave enough to write about the vicious…
May 26, 2017

“Did he kill? If he did kill, I would swear that it is with this meticulous, somewhat maniacal, admirably lucid care with which he classifies his notes, drafts his papers. Did he kill? Then it is while whistling a little tune, and wearing an apron for fear of stains.”

Why is it so great? I came across this stunning line (yes, it’s more than one sentence) in a piece in a literary journalism journal about the novelist Colette’s outings as a…
May 24, 2017
A celebration of narrative journalism's differences, and its singular strengths

A celebration of narrative journalism’s differences, and its singular strengths

This week we’re celebrating the things that make literary journalism different from news writing. A focus on felt detail. An embrace of emotion. An acceptance that the decisions made in…
May 19, 2017