Author

Paige Williams

@williams_paige

Paige Williams writes for The New Yorker and is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Winner of the National Magazine Award for feature writing in 2008, and a finalist in 2011 and 2009 (shared) , she has been anthologized in five volumes of the Best American series, including twice in The Best American Magazine Writing. She is the former editor of Nieman Storyboard and has taught narrative nonfiction at Harvard, M.I.T., NYU, Emory, the University of Pittsburgh, and at her alma mater, the University of Mississippi. She was a '97 Nieman Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. Her narrative nonfiction book "The Dinosaur Artist" is forthcoming, from Hachette, in Fall 2016.

Got 19 bucks? Take an online storytelling class with Susan Orlean.

Got 19 bucks? Take an online storytelling class with Susan Orlean.

Bestselling author and New Yorker writer Susan Orlean breaks down a semester’s worth of storytelling instruction in a two-hour online video course for Skillshare.com. For $19, you get tips and insight on 14 topics, from…
Storytelling tips from the creative minds behind 'House of Cards,' 'The Newsroom,' PBS, The Moth and more

Storytelling tips from the creative minds behind ‘House of Cards,’ ‘The Newsroom,’ PBS, The Moth and more

“The most important element in a good story is conflict. It’s seeing two opposing forces collide with one another.” That’s from Beau Willimon, the showrunner for House of Cards, and he said it at…
Annotation Tuesday! Rebecca Skloot and the wild dogs of New York

Annotation Tuesday! Rebecca Skloot and the wild dogs of New York

Before Rebecca Skloot published the bestselling The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she wrote magazines stories about science and about animals. You may remember her New York Times magazine piece…
Launched: Storyline, the Washington Post's new narrative project intersecting policy and storytelling

Launched: Storyline, the Washington Post’s new narrative project intersecting policy and storytelling

The Washington Post’s new narrative project, Storyline, launched today under the editorship of economics policy correspondent Jim Tankersley, with the tagline “People, policy, data.” As Tankersley explains in his introduction,…
It's Mayborn week!

It’s Mayborn week!

The 2014 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference opens Friday at the University of North Texas. The Saturday and Sunday workshops are full but you can still register for the keynote events. This year’s…
An intimate new narrative conference, Cali style

An intimate new narrative conference, Cali style

For the better part of the last decade, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism ran the most popular narrative journalism conference in the country. For three days each spring, hundreds of journalists gathered…
Nieman narrative news: Please welcome Steve Almond and Louise Kiernan

Nieman narrative news: Please welcome Steve Almond and Louise Kiernan

An exciting word from the mothership:CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Nieman Foundation for Journalism has hired Louise Kiernan to edit Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism and explores the future of nonfiction…
Upon Gary Smith's retirement: The venerated Sports Illustrated writer on longform immersion and intimacy

Upon Gary Smith’s retirement: The venerated Sports Illustrated writer on longform immersion and intimacy

It isn’t often that a narrative journalist’s retirement makes the news, but when Sports Illustrated announced this spring that longtime writer Gary Smith would be leaving the business, the public…
Investigative + narrative: Storytelling this week at IRE

Investigative + narrative: Storytelling this week at IRE

This year’s Investigative Reporters & Editors conference starts Wednesday in San Francisco, and there are no fewer than nine panels, workshops and master classes on storytelling. Registration is still open…

The Best of ‘Draft’ — control the narrative, keep it short & other advice on writing

Recommended reading from the New York Times’ Opinionator series “Draft,” on writing: “Keep It Short,” by columnist and author Danny Heitman: To shorten my articles, I often worked through several versions, and…