Story Annotations

A profile of a film-score composer that soars like his music

Jamie Fisher's portrait of Nicholas Britell ("Succession," "The Underground Railroad") translates riffs and layers of music into text you can almost hear

By Trevor Pyle • June 15, 2021

Empathy as the prime directive in writing about displaced people

Award-winning author Jessica Goudeau says journalists must expand their toolbox to write about the growing issues of displacement

By Madeline Bodin • June 11, 2021

Story Craft

Sage writing advice from the editor of Column One

Steve Padilla of the Los Angeles Times urges writers to tune up their writing with song

By Madeline Bodin • June 9, 2021

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Strictly Q&A

Empathy as the prime directive in writing about displaced people

By Madeline Bodin

June 11, 2021

Award-winning author Jessica Goudeau says journalists must expand their toolbox to write about the growing issues of displacement

Strictly Q&A

What it takes to cover a foreign country as a woman and during a pandemic

By Cat Woods

March 10, 2021

Indonesia correspondent Anne Barker of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. delivers a mix of breaking news and more personal stories

Strictly Q&A

What narrative master Eli Saslow learned about intimacy interviewing by phone

By Matt Tullis

February 24, 2021

The Washington Post's year-long "Voices from the Pandemic" series took hours of pre-reporting, patient listening and letting go of writerly control

Story Craft

When writing news requires a distance from neutrality to “tell it like it is”

By Roy Peter Clark

January 14, 2021

Writing guru Roy Peter Clark analyzes an "astonishing lead," and unpacks the notions of objectivity and detachment in light of current events

Strictly Q&A

How a top LinkedIn journalist quit with no what’s-next ideas, then woke up to a big one

By Julia Shipley

December 9, 2020

The Pivot: Novice podcaster Isabelle Roughol on the love of journalism that "lets you enter infinite worlds"

Strictly Q&A

The keys to global journalism: curiosity, open-mindedness and a broad network

By Cat Woods

December 8, 2020

BBC news presenter Jackie Leonard talks about what it takes to create an engaging podcast out of global news

Strictly Q&A

How an editor guided coverage of racism in the life and death of George Floyd

By Carly Stern

December 2, 2020

Steven Ginsberg, national editor at The Washington Post, grounded a sensitive project with this question: "Are we qualified to do this story?"

Strictly Q&A

Writing past politics to a “female way of approaching things” in commentary

By Bonnie Miller Rubin

November 17, 2020

Schmoozing with 2012 Pulitzer winner Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune on interviewing sensitive subjects, sharing her life, and aging

Strictly Q&A

What happened when a journalist tracked the origins of the rape evidence kit

By Monique Brouillette

November 4, 2020

Pagan Kennedy dug beyond stories about the backlog in rape kit testing to reveal the woman who invented the kit and how she was shelved by history

Strictly Q&A

The fashion critic of The New York Times sees clothing as an extension of culture

By Cat Woods

November 3, 2020

A "lucky mistake" made Vanessa Friedman become a major voice in fashion

Strictly Q&A

How the road led out of and back into journalism

By Julia Shipley

October 30, 2020

The Pivot: A young journalist was dumped out of newsrooms, found a new life, then was lured back with better boundaries

Strictly Q&A

Pitching the IWMF: Focus on undercovered issues, think big and dare to stretch

By Carly Stern

October 22, 2020

For 30 years, the International Women's Media Fund has helped fund women journalists and ambitious projects around the world