Strictly Q&A

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

Erik Vance: “Scientists are quirky everywhere”

The National Association of Science Writers gave Erik Vance a 2015 Science in Society award for science reporting for his story “Why Nothing Works,” published in Discover magazine, saying his…
December 8, 2015
Kristin Ohlson

Amy Ellis Nutt: “Our Stories Choose Us”

Amy Ellis Nutt Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt is the author of three non-fiction books, including the recently released “Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family.” The book…
November 12, 2015
Ricki Morell

Geraldine Brooks: “You might aspire to art but it better start as craft”

Geraldine Brooks Australian-born Geraldine Brooks was a prize-winning journalist before becoming a critically acclaimed novelist. Brooks, a Columbia Journalism School graduate and a former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent who…
October 9, 2015
Ricki Morell
Ari Daniel: "It's so important to show stories that have hopeful threads."

Ari Daniel: “It’s so important to show stories that have hopeful threads.”

If you heard a story last week on NPR’s “Here and Now” about a new kind of nuclear reactor or perhaps remember a recent piece on PRI’s “The World” about…
April 15, 2015