Story Annotations

Josh Sanburn went deep into a place of death — and found a story that teems with life.In “The Last of the First Responders,” published in June in Vanity Fair, …

Ann Patchett writes about Reese Witherspoon: No celebrity dirt, a storytelling structure, lots of dialog about books and houses and feminism

At first glance, there are few frills or fireworks in “Tatiana’s Luck,” Hannah Dreier ‘s profile of an immigrant living in a crowded New Jersey house stalked by COVID-19. In the…

One of the things that distinguishes the coronavirus outbreak from disasters that have come before is the disorienting flood of research and information. Credit — or blame — that on…

Surprising stories spring from any number of places. Investigative or narrative or explanatory stories often start with curiosity sparked by a local news story or feature. That’s what happened when…

Dan Zak of the Washington Post toured 800 miles of Iowa in five days to explore the real place behind the political headlines and cultural cliches

Coronavirus is no longer something happening somewhere else — no matter where you are — or something that will soon become yesterday’s news. As of this week, cases have been…

An investigative narrative exposes a system where the bounty hunter rules

Twenty-five years after a college athlete keeps a promise to God, ESPN follows up with a rare story from inside a cloistered convent

How a USA Today team helped a woman search her ancestral roots in Angola, home to the first Africans sold into slavery in what would become the U.S.