Story Craft

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
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…
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…

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
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…
Trying to find the dividing line between "travel writing" and "writing about place"

Trying to find the dividing line between “travel writing” and “writing about place”

Two-time Pulitzer winner Paul Salopek, now on a years-long trek that is "slow journalism" personified, and two others talk about storytelling that happens to involve travel
Author Caroline Paul: "Adventures are simply stories in action"

Author Caroline Paul: “Adventures are simply stories in action”

When the writer Caroline Paul was young, she wanted to be an Olympic athlete. Problem was, she says, she wasn’t amazingly gifted. So she picked a sport that didn’t have…
5 Questions: The Washington Post's Eli Saslow and "A survivor's life"

5 Questions: The Washington Post’s Eli Saslow and “A survivor’s life”

The Pulitzer winner (and two-time finalist) talks about covering the aftermath of a school shooting a different way: "the truth is obviously so much uglier and so much messier and…
The poetics of documentary at the Camden International Film Festival

The poetics of documentary at the Camden International Film Festival

It’s hard to beat a sunny September afternoon like this: You take a back road past trees whose leaves are showing the first colors of fall. You drive by a…

Where Tom Wolfe got his status obsession

Drawing a line from Yale classrooms and dead German intellectuals to Masters of the Universe