Story Craft

The New Yorker's "Lost Giant of American Literature" and the prism of race

The New Yorker’s “Lost Giant of American Literature” and the prism of race

You could say there’s a certain symmetry to the fact William Melvin Kelley, the black “lost giant of American literature,” as The New Yorker called him earlier this year, was…
April 5, 2018
Ebonye Gussine Wilkins
In Sicily, an old oral storytelling tradition tries to renew itself in the 21st century

In Sicily, an old oral storytelling tradition tries to renew itself in the 21st century

The third-grade students in Misterbianco, a small town at the foot of Mount Etna in eastern Sicily, watched, rapt, as the heavy puppets moved on a school auditorium stage. The…
March 22, 2018
Stefania D'Ignoti
The evolution of wartime journalists in Syria: from activists to reporters

The evolution of wartime journalists in Syria: from activists to reporters

Six years ago, in the early days of the Syrian uprising, a group of anti-government activists in a Damascus suburb decided to start their own newspaper.[pq]“If I look back to…
January 25, 2018
Abby Sewell
As Saudi Arabia modernizes, an expat child of its "Little America" creates a time capsule

As Saudi Arabia modernizes, an expat child of its “Little America” creates a time capsule

It isn’t often that you open a book and leap into your childhood. A wave of nostalgia washed over me as I flipped through New York-based photographer Ayesha Malik’s book,…
January 23, 2018
Jasmine Bager
5 Tips for Journalists Covering Mental and Behavioral Health

5 Tips for Journalists Covering Mental and Behavioral Health

Few topics are as misunderstood by the media as mental health. Despite advances in treatment paradigms, reporters too often fall back on dated stereotypes, distort the nature of illnesses and…
January 18, 2018
Katia Savchuk
Start 2018 out right with some literary journalism conferences and workshops

Start 2018 out right with some literary journalism conferences and workshops

The Power of Narrative: Telling True Stories in Turbulent TimesMarch 23-25Boston UniversityBoston, MassachusettsIt looks like the longest-running narrative journalism conference is making a point of spotlighting great female journalists and…
January 4, 2018
Kari Howard
Poetry finds a (calming) home in the hurly-burly of 21st century New York

Poetry finds a (calming) home in the hurly-burly of 21st century New York

Just a stone’s throw away from the high-finance hustle of the World Trade Center in NYC, I came across a simple blue-and-white sign on a glass door that read: The…
December 7, 2017
Jasmine Bager
Finding lessons for literary journalism in the poetry of Rust Belt chronicler Phil Levine

Finding lessons for literary journalism in the poetry of Rust Belt chronicler Phil Levine

His poems about his hometown, Detroit, were almost cinematic in a precision of detail that would embarrass the most economic writer
December 5, 2017
Thomas Curwen
Documentary film as "home movie": Going beyond a public face to reveal a private one

Documentary film as “home movie”: Going beyond a public face to reveal a private one

Almost all of us have home movies of our families somewhere, from the flickering black and white of 8-millimeter film to the Instagramable perfection of an iPhone video. We like…
September 19, 2017
Kari Howard
How a midcareer print writer mastered the "magic stick" in a 9-week radio Hogwarts

How a midcareer print writer mastered the “magic stick” in a 9-week radio Hogwarts

Nearly two years ago, I was one of dozens of Los Angeles Times reporters who took a buyout and left the paper. I liked my job almost all the time.…
August 8, 2017
Lee Romney