Story Annotations

The journalist, podcaster, and biographer shares tips on writing scenes you can’t witness firsthand, and getting in the head of characters no longer around to interview

The author of “Bad Company” on the merits of waiting until she was seized by an obsession and couldn’t let go

Rachel Adams-Heard, Polly Mosendz, and Fola Akinnibi looked at local government agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrants in New Mexico

Los Angeles Times veteran Thomas Curwen found professionalism and pride in the last Friday night run of the newspaper's storied presses

The Washington Post's Ruby Cramer profiled a small-city selectman caught in the crossfire of fear, anger and blame over asylum seekers

Erika Hayasaki found characters, scenes and themes in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires that she couldn't set aside despite multiple rejections

Esquire's Mark Warren immersed himself in evangelical Alabama to find the pain and grace behind a beloved pastor's suicide

A project annotation by Alexandra Zayas of ProPublica offers insights to how an editor sees story potential and guides reporters

Nonfiction author Jay Kirk used time, openness and empathy for a New York Times Magazine profile of the Sandy Hook school shooting investigators

Andreas Babst of Switzerland went behind-the-scenes of the fabled Intercontinental Hotel with two employees — one Talib, one not