Personal Essays

How an old story taught new lessons about reporting trauma

A quarter-century after a catastrophic fire, a reporter returned to interview survivors and faced the grief she had carried with her

By Line Vaaben • April 4, 2024

A memorial to one of the 63 young people killed in a 1998 disco fire in Sweden

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Story Craft

2024 Power of Narrative: Double the power of your story with a braided structure

In a long feature story, two related or resonant threads can be woven to make a piece that is both complex and clear

By Madeline Bodin • April 3, 2024

From the Editor

Reverse engineering and story construction

Blueprints, patterns, schematics and other building plans provide a model for building a more effective story with less struggle

By Jacqui Banaszynski • April 2, 2024

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Why's This So Good?

A “wise and lovely” essay enchants the reader in a fellow writer

By Dale Keiger
October 24, 2023

A friend and former colleague analyzes the grace in a meditation by Ann Finkbeiner about the passing of seasons and years

Why's This So Good?

A profile of rival athletic greats becomes an exploration of a great friendship

By Dale Keiger
August 10, 2023

Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins aces an off-court story about Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, competition, cancer, battles and bonds

Why's This So Good?

What to do when pronouns can confuse

By Jacqui Banaszynski
June 29, 2023

A New York Times news story offers a model for how to use language that is current, flexible, inclusive and clear

Strictly Q&A

Six profiles and a first-person approach give dignity to the many faces of homelessness

By Trevor Pyle
April 21, 2023

A reporter for the Chicago Reader teams with a freelance photographer to document the personal cost of society's "lattice of failure"

Why's This So Good?

An annotated guide to narrative magic

By Madeline Bodin
April 12, 2023

Pulitzer-Prize winning feature writer Lane DeGregory shares the techniques behind her vivid storytelling in a new anthology of her stories

Why's This So Good?

Challenging the stereotype of Uvalde’s plucky child survivor

By Mallary Tenore Tarpley
January 27, 2023

John Woodrow Cox invests time, attention and empathy to profile a girl who became the public voice of the town's messy recovery from trauma

Why's This So Good?

Personal stories on what Afghan women want the rest of us to know

By Jacqui Banaszynski
October 11, 2022

A young journalist who escaped Afghanistan returns a year later, by remote, to report the reality for the women left behind

Why's This So Good?

Dan Barry, baseball and the love of the (writing) game

By Jacqui Banaszynski
July 27, 2022

An exploration of mud becomes a meditation on America's pastime through the sharp, romantic view of The New York Times master storyteller

Why's This So Good?

“I’m-not-a-journalist” newspaper columnist writes about community, parenting and letting go

By Jacqui Banaszynski
June 17, 2022

In nine taut paragraphs, a community newspaper columnist captures a specific place and the universal reality of parenthood

Why's This So Good?

A documentary film breaks rules and wins an Oscar

By Kristen Chin
May 27, 2022

A young filmmaker analyzes why Ben Proudfoots short doc, "The Queen of Basketball," makes her cry, and why that makes it a successful film

Why's This So Good?

What happens when fandom backfires in a culture of censorship

By Kristen Chin
March 29, 2022

"Dream Boy and the Poison Fans," from the NPR podcast "Rough Translation," finds universal themes in a do-you-believe-this story from China

Why's This So Good?

What personal pain reminded two writers about the gift listening

By Jacqui Banaszynski
February 18, 2022

Essays by Chuck Haga in the Grand Forks Herald and Frank Bruni in The New York Times peel through layers of inattention

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