Author

Ricki Morell

Ricki Morell is a Boston-based freelance writer who has written for publications including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, WBUR’s CommonHealth website, and the Hechinger Report, an online education newsroom.

From the caress of love to the fists of fear

EDITOR’S NOTE: This week, Nieman Reports magazine takes an unflinching look at domestic violence, and at the challenges and imperative of covering for what it is: not a “crime of…
August 23, 2019
From a caress of love to a fist of fear

From a caress of love to a fist of fear

 In her 20 years traveling the world as a freelance writer, Rachel Louise Snyder has covered a hurricane in Honduras, a tsunami in Indonesia, and the forced sterilization of women…
May 7, 2019
What Journalists Need to Know About Writing Screenplays

What Journalists Need to Know About Writing Screenplays

How many journalists regard the Watergate scandal as a love story? Peter Landesman does and that is, arguably, the key to his success as a screenwriter.Landesman was sitting in a…
February 28, 2018
The making of binge-worthy serial narratives, from "S-Town" to "Framed"

The making of binge-worthy serial narratives, from “S-Town” to “Framed”

Podcasts and print alike are reinvigorating a form of storytelling that Dickens and Homer used to hook readers: "to be continued..."
April 4, 2017
Dale Russakoff: “How do you write a book without a hero?”

Dale Russakoff: “How do you write a book without a hero?”

Dale Russakoff spent 28 years as a reporter for The Washington Post before writing her first book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” Russakoff, who took a buyout…
February 23, 2016
Roger Lowenstein: “I don’t like the word simplify; I prefer the word explain”

Roger Lowenstein: “I don’t like the word simplify; I prefer the word explain”

Roger LowensteinRoger Lowenstein is the author of six nonfiction books, including his latest, American’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, he…
December 11, 2015

Amy Ellis Nutt: “Our Stories Choose Us”

Amy Ellis Nutt Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt is the author of three non-fiction books, including the recently released “Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family.” The book…
November 12, 2015
Geraldine Brooks: “You might aspire to art but it better start as craft”

Geraldine Brooks: “You might aspire to art but it better start as craft”

Geraldine BrooksAustralian-born Geraldine Brooks was a prize-winning journalist before becoming a critically acclaimed novelist. Brooks, a Columbia Journalism School graduate and a former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent who covered…
October 9, 2015