Strictly Q&A

Kate Christensen: “It is crucial to avoid grinding axes, settling scores and pointing fingers in your memoir”

The PEN/Faulkner winner talks about the differences in creating characters in memoir vs. fiction, plus finding happiness in Maine
July 19, 2016
Kari Howard
Digital longform, and the pitfalls of the "build it and they will come" approach to business models

Digital longform, and the pitfalls of the “build it and they will come” approach to business models

Readers with delicate sensibilities, you might want to prepare yourself for the results of one Missouri student's thesis research
July 14, 2016
Kari Howard

Rebecca Nesson: “I like aliveness, whether it’s miserable or whether it’s ecstatic”

A story of marriage on the rocks and a pregnancy unwanted
July 7, 2016
Daniel A. Gross
Ezra Edelman: "The job of an interviewer is to prompt people to go to a place they didn't even realize they were prepared to go to"

Ezra Edelman: “The job of an interviewer is to prompt people to go to a place they didn’t even realize they were prepared to go to”

Forty-six minutes into Episode 4 of Ezra Edelman’s epic documentary “O.J. Simpson: Made in America,” the director squares off with Barry Scheck, the defense attorney who discredited–or, at the very…
June 7, 2016
Elon Green
5 Questions with: Ben Montgomery on Michael Brick and "Everyone Leaves Behind a Name"

5 Questions with: Ben Montgomery on Michael Brick and “Everyone Leaves Behind a Name”

Perhaps as much as any modern journalist, Michael Brick brought the style of Ben Hecht’s “A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago” into the 21st century newsroom. Hecht made the…
May 10, 2016
Michael Fitzgerald

Susan Orlean: “My method of reporting is just to be there”

Susan Orlean is storied for her stories. Since 1992 she’s been a staff writer at The New Yorker, and her 1998 book “The Orchid Thief” was made into the movie…
April 22, 2016
Kim Tingley
Dale Russakoff: “How do you write a book without a hero?”

Dale Russakoff: “How do you write a book without a hero?”

Dale Russakoff spent 28 years as a reporter for The Washington Post before writing her first book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” Russakoff, who took a buyout…
February 23, 2016
Ricki Morell
Joshua Hammer: “I’ve never been in this kind of hot zone before”

Joshua Hammer: “I’ve never been in this kind of hot zone before”

Joshua Hammer started his foreign correspondent’s life as a rotating bureau chief for Newsweek from 1992 to 2006. He’s now a contributing editor to Smithsonian and Outside magazines, and contributes…
February 10, 2016
Davis Harper

Jake Silverstein: “Immersing you in worlds not your own”

New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein on telling stories with virtual reality
January 19, 2016
Michael Fitzgerald
Roger Lowenstein: “I don’t like the word simplify; I prefer the word explain”

Roger Lowenstein: “I don’t like the word simplify; I prefer the word explain”

Roger LowensteinRoger Lowenstein is the author of six nonfiction books, including his latest, American’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, he…
December 11, 2015
Ricki Morell