Strictly Q&A

Reporting the untold tales of executioners' songs

Reporting the untold tales of executioners’ songs

South Carolina reporter Chiara Eisner used public records and sensitive sourcing to tell stories of people who execute condemned prisoners
How a top explanatory reporter does emotional interviews: With empathy

How a top explanatory reporter does emotional interviews: With empathy

Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong of The Atlantic takes the same open approach with COVID scientists and frontline nurses
Tracking shards of grief for 20 years, and daring to love your story subjects

Tracking shards of grief for 20 years, and daring to love your story subjects

Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic goes on a quest to find what a friend lost to 9/11 left behind, and delivers a meditation on love and grief
How the loss of one Olympic story led to gold on another

How the loss of one Olympic story led to gold on another

Wall Street Journal sports reporter Ben Cohen found a surprising profile of an unlikely Olympian in previous notes, then used Zoom to bring it to life
Foreign reporting: Peter Hessler on seeing China through a personal lens

Foreign reporting: Peter Hessler on seeing China through a personal lens

Peter Hessler’s books about China have resonated with both Western and Chinese audiences, an accomplishment that seems unlikely today, when the “China story” has become a political and diplomatic battleground.Hessler…
How the voices of five young women from remote, coastal Maine challenge stereotypes

How the voices of five young women from remote, coastal Maine challenge stereotypes

Gigi Georges is a self-described city kid. She is a long-time policy advocate and advisor who was born and raised in Brooklyn and spent most of her life moving between…
Empathy as the prime directive in writing about displaced people

Empathy as the prime directive in writing about displaced people

We are living in a century of displacement, says Jessica Goudeau, award-winning author of “After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America.” And because we…
What it takes to cover a foreign country as a woman and during a pandemic

What it takes to cover a foreign country as a woman and during a pandemic

In Australia, where the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the nation’s No. 1 source of news, Anne Barker is a household name, with her stories playing across TV, radio and…
What narrative master Eli Saslow learned about intimacy interviewing by phone

What narrative master Eli Saslow learned about intimacy interviewing by phone

EDITOR’S NOTE: The “Voices from the Pandemic” series has been awarded a 2020 George Polk Award in Oral Histories.Eli Saslow of The Washington Post has made a name for himself…
When writing news requires a distance from neutrality to "tell it like it is"

When writing news requires a distance from neutrality to “tell it like it is”

Writing guru Roy Peter Clark analyzes an "astonishing lead," and unpacks the notions of objectivity and detachment in light of current events