Lisa Grace Lednicer

America’s first hip-hop inaugural poem ties history to the present, optimism to urgency

By Lisa Grace Lednicer• Narrative News• January 21, 2021

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts today analyzing the power of the presidential inaugural poem delivered Jan. 20, 2020, by Amanda Gorman, and reflecting on its place in history. The other, by writing teacher Roy Peter Clark of … Read more

How a high school journalist geared up to cover protests in Portland, Oregon

By Lisa Grace Lednicer• Strictly Q&A• August 20, 2020

As federal law enforcement officers descended on Portland, Oregon, last month and clashed with protesters demanding an end to police brutality, Eddy Binford-Ross — who lives in Salem, about 45 minutes south of Portland — rushed to the scene. Read more

How F. Scott Fitzgerald guided the hand and aspirations of a newspaper journalist

By Lisa Grace Lednicer• Notable Narratives• June 4, 2020

Early in my career, while working in Minnesota as a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, I fell in love with F. Scott Fitzgerald, the city’s most famous native writer. It may have had something to do … Read more

Four hundred years of harsh history delivered in 8,000 unflinching words

By Lisa Grace Lednicer• Notable Narratives• January 17, 2020

“Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. Black Americans fought to make them true. Without this struggle, America would have no democracy at all.” So begins Nikole Hannah-Jones’s stunning and provocative essay that … Read more

A career newspaperwoman visits the Newseum in its final days

By Lisa Grace Lednicer• Narrative News• December 31, 2019

Today is the last day for the Newseum, that glitzy, over-the-top temple to journalism in Washington, D.C. It lasted 11 years, eight months and 20 days — shorter than most newspapers and even most new-media start-ups, but longer than … Read more

Want to make your headlines sing? Try writing to the beats of “Hamilton”

By Lisa Grace Lednicer• Story Craft• December 12, 2018

As a newish multiplatform editor at The Washington Post, I’m always looking for help writing great headlines. My mind isn’t naturally filled with puns, I haven’t read reams of poetry and my musical tastes tend to run to classical, … Read more

About Lisa Grace Lednicer