Story Craft

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

Two films at the Camden International Film Festival in midcoast Maine explore universal truths through the intimacy of family -- with love, and with shame
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
Katherine Boo's 15 rules for narrative nonfiction — now this is a "must-read"

Katherine Boo’s 15 rules for narrative nonfiction — now this is a “must-read”

At the Mayborn Conference for storytellers, the Pulitzer winner warns against falling in love with the craft too much, and says that “getting it right matters way more than whether…
July 25, 2017
Katia Savchuk
In a South African cookbook-memory book, recapturing a life that was lost to apartheid

In a South African cookbook-memory book, recapturing a life that was lost to apartheid

"Huis Kombuis" offers an old-fashioned spin on multimedia storytelling: a collective memoir with lovingly hand-stitched recipes honoring a demolished neighborhood -- and a past that couldn't be destroyed
July 20, 2017
Heather Richie
In Arab world, an ancient tradition of oral storytelling gets a 21st century spin

In Arab world, an ancient tradition of oral storytelling gets a 21st century spin

In the past, "hakawati" would recount legends or fables; today, Moth-like events often tackle social issues or process trauma from war
June 6, 2017
Abby Sewell
The truth must be told: a conversation with slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez

The truth must be told: a conversation with slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez

In this translation of a haunting interview given just months before he was gunned down, the crusading reporter talks of telling "stories of love in the midst of corpses hanging…
May 22, 2017
Ernesto Priego
Fake news and true facts, and the licenses taken in pursuit of narrative

Fake news and true facts, and the licenses taken in pursuit of narrative

All journalism is a kind of fiction, one writer argues, because of the intercession of the reporter; as our attitudes on truth and nonfiction have grown more atomized, the most…
May 18, 2017
David L. Ulin

The roadblocks, and the dangers, for investigative journalists in the Arab world

As the Arab Spring ushered in less openness rather than more, a Jordan-based group supports reporters taking chances in this fledgling movement
May 11, 2017
Abby Sewell
The art of the obituary: It's a dying one

The art of the obituary: It’s a dying one

As newsrooms shrink, a former obit writer mourns the loss of bustling staffs that took deadline dives into fascinating lives, and looks fondly at the New York Times piece marking…
February 21, 2017
Steve Chawkins