From the Editor

Four questions mine for bottomless wisdom

Writing coach Chip Scanlan brings back "Chip on Your Shoulder," which features formatted interviews that yield a surprising range of answers

By Jacqui Banaszynski • July 10, 2020

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Story Annotations

Navigating ethics, culture and safety to immerse in immigration and Covid

Pulitzer Prize winner Hannah Dreier writes an "unusually quiet story" that presented challenges of access, health risks and structure

By Trevor Pyle • July 8, 2020

Strictly Q&A

Rejecting the simplified news narrative

Documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr probes the complexity of the human psyche in well-known criminal cases

By Kristen Chin • July 2, 2020

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Chip Scanlan

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Strictly Q&A

Rejecting the simplified news narrative

By Kristen Chin
July 2, 2020

Documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr probes the complexity of the human psyche in well-known criminal cases

Strictly Q&A

Reporting the emotionally sensitive story through trauma and physical distance

By Rachael L. Kelley
June 25, 2020

An L.A. Times metro reporter leans on eight years covering South L.A., and on her humanity, to write about Nipsey Hussle, covid, racial injustice and more

Strictly Q&A

The route to a Pulitzer in opinion writing: rigorous reporting

By Madeline Bodin
June 24, 2020

A newcomer to a tiny newspaper in rural Texas brings fresh eyes, big-city experience, a drummer's rhythm, and some "swagger" to his editorials

Strictly Q&A

A day-in-the-life profile of a grocery store during the coronavirus shutdown

By Trevor Pyle
June 2, 2020

A Los Angeles Times story from inside a grocery store reveals the power of detail, dialog and a tight narrative frame

Strictly Q&A

Triple profile: A mountain town, a beloved newspaper, and an unlikely hero

By Chip Scanlan
May 6, 2020

A veteran foreign correspondent finds a hero tale in a tiny California town: "A story is a story no matter where it takes place."

Strictly Q&A

A “nut case” buys a mountain town newspaper to save it

By Jacqui Banaszynki
May 6, 2020

Four months after acting on impulse, what has a non-journalist local hero learned about the romance and reality of journalism?

Strictly Q&A

A writer channels her own life of fear to report about science and psychology

By Kim Cross
March 31, 2020

Award-winning freelancer and outdoorswoman Eva Holland weaves memoir and research in her debut book "Nerve"

Strictly Q&A

Calling out Olympic officials’ past failures as coronavirus threatens the 2020 Games

By Dale Keiger
March 18, 2020

Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins is fierce in her support of striving athletes: "I make my living off their sweat."

Strictly Q&A

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

By Trevor Pyle
February 25, 2020

A veteran journalist discovers the role of story in America's prison system — and "human resilience and grace in the face of adversity"

Strictly Q&A

When the story we cover becomes our own

By Chip Scanlan
January 9, 2020

A reporter chronicles the shutdown of a factory and the closing of his newspaper, capturing a familiar “cycle of death and exodus”

Strictly Q&A

Coming home from stories of war

By Hope McLeod
December 4, 2019

Washington Post war correspondent Pam Constable about reporting, writing and surviving in the field

Strictly Q&A

Three core story principles, along with tea, baked goods and endless enthusiasm

By Julia Shipley
October 31, 2019

Venerable breaking news site Reuters ventures into narrative journalism with former L.A. Times and Storyboard editor Kari Howard at the helm

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