Short Takes

How to write boring wonk

A freelancer laments an editor's directive against compelling copy

By Jacqui Banaszynski • September 19, 2023

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Personal Essays

Four girls, 60 years, 11 students, 2,800 miles and a new awareness of history

A journalist-turned-teacher takes students on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail to explore the nation's challenges through a journalistic lens

By Herbert Lowe • September 15, 2023

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A revealing profile of a family that defied their faith’s edict on home schooling

"You keep showing up, you keep watching and listening, and you hope that you observe something interesting." ~ Peter Jamison, Washington Post

By Trevor Pyle • September 14, 2023

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A revealing profile of a family that defied their faith’s edict on home schooling

By Trevor Pyle
September 14, 2023

"You keep showing up, you keep watching and listening, and you hope that you observe something interesting." ~ Peter Jamison, Washington Post

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How a reporter documented the failure of “failure-to-protect” laws

By Chip Scanlan
July 19, 2023

Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones followed the story of a woman given harsher punishment than the man who abused her daughter — and her

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A collaboration through nine months, 14,000 words, 36 chapters and a “leap of faith”

By Carly Stern
July 14, 2023

‘We were taking a big leap of faith and trusting readers to be able to figure it out themselves,’ says investigative reporter Raquel Rutledge

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When a migrant story trail goes cold, fresh reporting finds a deeper truth

By Chip Scanlan
July 6, 2023

British journalist Samira Shackle likes to revisit incomplete social-issues news that is hyped, spun and incomplete to learn what really happened

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Finding the “bigger and higher purpose” to cover transgender issues and suicide

By Trevor Pyle
June 15, 2023

William Wan of The Washington Post wove a braided profile a state lawmaker and her late son in their battle against anti-trans laws

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Reconstructing a murky maze of blame

By Chip Scanlan
June 1, 2023

Lauren Smiley of Wired spent four years tracking the first pedestrian fatality involving a bicyclist, Uber and a self-driving car

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When a reporter is slain, another picks up the story

By Chip Scanlan
May 24, 2023

The Washington Post sent Lizzie Johnson to Las Vegas to continue an investigation started by Review-Journal reporter Jeff German

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‘Good versus good’ stories that unravel complex societal problems

By Carly Stern
March 10, 2023

New Yorker writer Nathan Heller follows a year of change in one San Francisco high school in which there was no clear right or wrong

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Reconstructing a fractured life and broken system

By Chip Scanlan
March 2, 2023

L.A. Times reporter Thomas Curwen traced the life of one schizophrenia sufferer to tell a bigger story of society's challenges with mental health

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Jon Mooallem’s narrative on the Camp Fire: “The value is in the telling”

By Ania Hull
February 16, 2023

The experienced author and magazine writer takes on the aftermath of California's biggest wildfire with insecurity and empathy

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Spending time to report a meditation on the long tail of grief

By Chip Scanlan
January 26, 2023

A team from The New York Times immersed itself in Uvalde, Texas, after the "media horde" left and showed the fuller horror of a mass shooting

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A profile of a single mom trying to raise a “good man” balances transparency and privacy

By Trevor Pyle
January 19, 2023

Jose A. Del Real delivers a range of straightforward but sensitive stories in The Washington Post series about "Masculinity in America"

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