Nell Lake

There’s a subgenre in first-person works of journalism in which the “I” is the reporter on the trail of a story. This sort of story offers readers a look at…

A woman working at a Chinese restaurant refuses a man’s pennies when he tries to pay his bill. The man is indignant; a circus act of politicians and community leaders…

The scene-writing is compelling in this tick-tock reconstruction of the experiences of the Virginia Tech class that lost the greatest number of people in the shooting. We found keeping track…

Like “Thembi’s Diary”, this story takes us into its characters’ world without the use of a narrator. It’s an approach that can provide exceptional immediacy. In this piece, a soldier…

Finkel shows his knack, once again, for crafting newspaper stories with a writerly, particularly human point of view. He doesn’t just write technically compelling scenes; he lets his readers in…

This story reconstructs the experience of Johan Otter, who was attacked by a grizzly while hiking in Glacier National Park with his daughter. The first section tells the story of…

Thembi Ngubane is one of the most compelling characters we’ve encountered in a nonfiction narrative. She is an exceptionally likable narrator, both open in her feelings and poised in her…

We admired the cinematic quality of this piece. Raghavan moves his lens from image to image, providing vivid concrete detail, at times moving in close, at other times stepping back…

This series was written and reported by Thomas Farragher and Patricia Wen. It recounts the experiences of a couple and their two sons. One son is straight, the other gay.…

This piece is about guilt, loyalty and the relationship between ordinary Americans and soldiers fighting in Iraq. It’s also a good test case for the "It’s not about you" principle…