Consider the curse of curse words. Some publications steer clear of them altogether. Some embrace them in whole, in part, or in different forms and different fonts. Some have found stances shifting in a world where … Read more
An offhand remark by a source caught Stephanie Clifford’s interest. More than a year later, the reporter revealed a harrowing problem previously obscured in the murk of the family court system. The result is “Two … Read more
It was the kind of tweet a lot of people would thumb past with no more than a quick “like.” But when Jaweed Kaleem read about a one-woman Black Lives Matter protest in small-town America during this past raw-nerved … Read more
With transportation stymied by a pandemic, Wright Thompson couldn’t exactly hop on a plane to research a story on Michael Jordan. Instead, the ESPN senior reporter built a time machine, one interview at a time. The resulting story is … Read more
Josh Sanburn went deep into a place of death — and found a story that teems with life. In “The Last of the First Responders,” published in June in Vanity Fair, Sanburn and … Read more
The street actions rolling through American cities have aimed a spotlight on police. Sometimes the light is harsh: police seen as militarized enforcers who act with impunity in a culture of racism. Sometimes the light fragments, and reveals complex … Read more
At first glance, there are few frills or fireworks in “Tatiana’s Luck,” Hannah Dreier ‘s profile of an immigrant living in a crowded New Jersey house stalked by COVID-19. In the … Read more
When looking for advice, writers shouldn’t be picky; sometimes even a fictional cannibal will serve. When NBC aired a series about Hannibal Lecter, the psychiatrist who moonlights as a serial killer — or maybe it’s the other way around … Read more
With a cell phone, an eye for evocative detail and 50 pages of notes, Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times turned a day at a grocery store into a portrait of a community challenged and changed by … Read more
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