Nell Lake

We like this series for its scrupulous attention to detail. Its descriptive passages pop with verbs; we are right there, walking with the imam as he starts his morning. Elliott…

This piece was a finalist for a 2006 Pulitzer Prize. U.S.District Judge Joan Lefkow became famous after a man whose case she oversaw murdered her husband and mother in the…

We like the spareness of this story’s telling, the nodding at the theme of human connection, but the stepping back from it, just as the events themselves do. We like…

Padilla set out to follow the recovery of Jeff May, one of the victims of the Red Lake school shootings — but found little narrative there. So Padilla and his…

In this first-person piece, we liked the wealth of dialogue, rich scenes, vivid characters and satisfying narrative arc. Darr uses a familiar structure: She starts the piece with the moment…

This 7-part series’ strengths, it seems to us, are first, its ability to keep readers wondering, its handling of suspense. (Notice the suspenseful section endings in particular.) Second, the series…

We admire this piece for the way its tone and content match its protagonist’s own qualities. Elizabeth Balraj is the exacting and dignified coroner of Cuyahoga County. Long’s writing, too,…

This series was written and reported by Anh Do and Teri Sforza. We admired the masterful blend of emotional material—the boy’s and his family’s experience of separation, loss—with engaging explications…

We liked this piece because it’s well written—good verbs, vivid scenes—and because it applies narrative to a complicated sociological subject: the internationalization of a formerly fairly homogeneous community. LaForgia gets…

Two children were killed and two injured in a hit-and-run accident. This series tells, in long form, the story of two women—the mother of the children and the young woman…