Story Craft

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

Farah Stockman: “I’m not going to write about them like they’re failures”

A columnist looks back at whether a summer program for poor children had an impact
"Power of Narrative" conference: Nikole Hannah-Jones on difficult topics

“Power of Narrative” conference: Nikole Hannah-Jones on difficult topics

Two years ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones published “Segregation Now,” a collaboration between her then-employer Pro Publica and The Atlantic, about the desegregation and resegregation of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Hannah-Jones started her career…
"Power of Narrative" Conference: Mary Roach's bad habits

“Power of Narrative” Conference: Mary Roach’s bad habits

Mary Roach doesn’t do her homework. She didn’t go to J-school. By her own admission, she’s never quite sure she knows what she’s doing.“I always have the sense that I’m…