Trevor Pyle

A religion reporter profiles a charismatic community drawn to a “miracle Bible”

By Trevor Pyle• Story Annotations• April 14, 2020

Surprising stories spring from any number of places. Investigative or narrative or explanatory stories often start with curiosity sparked by a local news story or feature. That’s what happened when an editor at Slate read a story in a … Read more

When a profile is also about art is also about climate change is also about grief

By Trevor Pyle• Why's This So Good?• March 12, 2020

Julia Rosen has probed the myths of America’s deepest lake, looked down on Prince William Sound from a floatplane and joined a quest to scour the Bronx … Read more

How the personal narrative can make the difference between prison and release

By Trevor Pyle• Strictly Q&A• February 25, 2020

When Dashka Slater looked at California’s parole system, she saw more than a sprawling bureaucracy; she saw a place where people struggled toward redemption. When she followed those seeking parole, the journalist and author found more than crimes and … Read more

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant’s death inspired deadline writing as daring and creative as he was

By Trevor Pyle• Why's This So Good?• January 28, 2020

Kobe Bryant had enough championship rings for a fist, a mural bearing his image on Melrose Avenue and a history that echoes loudly in the #MeToo era. The former Lakers star’s shocking death with eight others in a helicopter … Read more

The chronic pain of runaway medical debt

By Trevor Pyle• Story Annotations• December 24, 2019

Lizzie Presser was looking for the intersection of two wide-ranging and little-known facets of American life: the broad power of contempt laws, and the criminalization of medical debt. The ProPublica reporter found it in Coffeyville, Kansas, and came … Read more

“Failure is the best. After you fail, you’re free.”

By Trevor Pyle• One Great Sentence• December 12, 2019

Lizzy Goodman’s “Meet Me in the Bathroom” is such a raucous oral history of New York’s indie rock scene that readers’ ears are in danger of ringing while reading. It’s vivid and grimy enough to make you feel … Read more

Stories that unfold — and pain that is measured — from the ground up

By Trevor Pyle• Strictly Q&A• October 9, 2019

You can almost smell the cedar-hewn totem poles and see them rise from the soil, so evocative is “We Didn’t Stand A Chance,” Joshua Hunt’s personal essay about opioid abuse among Native Alaskans. Opioid abuse … Read more

A bag of ashes, a research-loving reporter, the public library, and a three-hour hunt

By Trevor Pyle• Strictly Q&A• September 6, 2019

It was an intriguing bit of crowd-sourcing: Police in Portland, Oregon, said they had “exhausted all resources” in attempts to find relatives or friends of a dead WWII veteran, and was asking the public for help. In response, an … Read more

Romancing the moon in the reality of time

By Trevor Pyle• Why's This So Good?• August 15, 2019

When it came time to write about the 50th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon, Charles P. Pierce jettisoned sentimentality like a booster rocket. The opening of Pierce’s July 20 Esquire column touches … Read more

About Trevor Pyle