Story Annotations

Annotation Tuesday! Ron Rosenbaum and "The Secrets of the Little Blue Box"

Annotation Tuesday! Ron Rosenbaum and “The Secrets of the Little Blue Box”

Some writers work for decades before one of their pieces gets widespread attention. Ron Rosenbaum managed to pull it off with his second long-form magazine article.Rosenbaum’s 1971 Esquire piece, “Secrets…
February 14, 2017
Tom McNichol
Annotation Tuesday! Adrian Chen and “Unfollow”

Annotation Tuesday! Adrian Chen and “Unfollow”

The New Yorker writer talks about his story on the awakening of a daughter of the reviled Westboro Baptist Church, calling it "a culmination of things I was writing about…
January 31, 2017
Katia Savchuk
Annotation Tuesday! Chris Hamby and "The Court That Rules the World"

Annotation Tuesday! Chris Hamby and “The Court That Rules the World”

Chris Hamby's recent investigative series for BuzzFeed reads like dystopian fiction. He tells us of a powerful “global super court” that companies use to sue sovereign nations for cutting into…
January 24, 2017
Katia Savchuk
Annotation Tuesday! Kathy Sawyer and the execution of the "Death Row Granny"

Annotation Tuesday! Kathy Sawyer and the execution of the “Death Row Granny”

More than 30 years ago, a journalism grad student clipped the Washington Post story as a great example of how to transform a deadline story with narrative details. He still…
January 17, 2017
Roy Rivenburg
Annotation Tuesday! Jessica Weisberg and The Atavist's "A Family Matter"

Annotation Tuesday! Jessica Weisberg and The Atavist’s “A Family Matter”

Jessica Weisberg believes that narrative journalism is heading toward a post-platform world where reporters pick the right medium for each story. If that’s the case, she’s been training for the…
January 3, 2017
Katia Savchuk
Annotation Tuesday! Rachel Monroe and "Have You Ever Thought About Killing Someone?"

Annotation Tuesday! Rachel Monroe and “Have You Ever Thought About Killing Someone?”

Rachel Monroe has two journalistic obsessions: crime and utopia. She’s fascinated by how people deal with extreme situations, when the stakes are high and things fall apart. The two aren’t…
December 6, 2016
Katia Savchuk
Annotation Tuesday! Brooke Jarvis and "The Deepest Dig"

Annotation Tuesday! Brooke Jarvis and “The Deepest Dig”

Recently, Brooke Jarvis’ byline has seemed to pop up everywhere. I opened “Love and Ruin,” a new anthology of stories from The Atavist, to find a piece on her year…
October 18, 2016
Katia Savchuk
Annotation Tuesday! Leah Sottile and "The Man Who Created Bigfoot"

Annotation Tuesday! Leah Sottile and “The Man Who Created Bigfoot”

Just when you think Bigfoot has been analyzed, merchandized and satirized ad nauseam, along comes journalist Leah Sottile and an octogenarian rodeo cowboy named Bob Gimlin, galloping out of the…
October 11, 2016
Roy Rivenburg
Annotation Tuesday! Brian Kevin and "The Belfast Operation"

Annotation Tuesday! Brian Kevin and “The Belfast Operation”

Like a lot of people “from away” with a stake in Maine, I’ve been reading Down East magazine for several years now. It was a comfort read, something that connected…
October 4, 2016
Kari Howard
Annotation Tuesday! Jeff Maysh and "The rise and fall of the Bombshell Bandit"

Annotation Tuesday! Jeff Maysh and “The rise and fall of the Bombshell Bandit”

Longform specialist Jeff Maysh has a penchant for telling genre-breaking stories about people with secret lives. There’s the mom who assumed her daughter’s identity to return to high school; the…
September 27, 2016
Davis Harper