Story Craft

When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips

There’s long-form narrative, and then there’s book-length narrative. Both are “long,” but a story that’s 300 pages long is a different proposition, for both writer and reader, from one that’s…
December 15, 2011
Peter Ginna
Gay Talese has a Coke*: reflections of a narrative legend, in conversation with Esquire's Chris Jones

Gay Talese has a Coke*: reflections of a narrative legend, in conversation with Esquire’s Chris Jones

Continuing the Nieman Foundation narrative writing speaker series set up by Paige Williams, journalism legend Gay Talese appeared on campus two weeks ago in conversation with Esquire’s Chris Jones. The Harvard…
December 2, 2011
Paige Williams

Chris Jones on reporting for detail, the case against outlining and the power of donuts

Esquire writer at large Chris Jones came to the Nieman Foundation two weeks ago as part of the Narrative Writing speakers series I started at the foundation last year, and spent a couple…
December 1, 2011
Paige Williams
November Editors’ Roundtable: GQ's close-up on the people who bring you breakfast (and lunch, and dinner)

November Editors’ Roundtable: GQ’s close-up on the people who bring you breakfast (and lunch, and dinner)

Our November Roundtable looks at “Hecho en América,” by Jeanne Marie Laskas. Laskas immerses herself in the world of migrant workers picking blueberries in Washington County, Maine, and illuminates the…
November 17, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Jessica Pressler on New York, “millennium girls” and the love story that wasn't

Jessica Pressler on New York, “millennium girls” and the love story that wasn't

This week's Editors' Roundtable dives into Jessica Pressler’s story “A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age,” from New York magazine. A contributing editor and blogger for New York since 2007, Pressler…
October 28, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
October Editors' Roundtable No. 2: New York magazine updates an archetype

October Editors’ Roundtable No. 2: New York magazine updates an archetype

Our second October Rountable looks at “A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age,” by Jessica Pressler. Pressler introduces readers to former stripper Diane Passage, and a world in which a…
October 27, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Amy Harmon on getting readers “to think about the limits of their own tolerance”

Amy Harmon on getting readers “to think about the limits of their own tolerance”

Our latest Editors’ Roundtable looks at “Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World.” Amy Harmon's story follows Justin Canha, an autistic man in his early 20s, and the…
October 14, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
October Editors' Roundtable No. 1: The New York Times on autism and adulthood

October Editors’ Roundtable No. 1: The New York Times on autism and adulthood

Our first October Rountable looks at “Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World,” by Amy Harmon. Harmon tells the story of Justin Canha, a 21-year-old illustrator hoping to…
October 14, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Dudley Clendinen on building stories from life and choosing grace in death: “I don't quibble with fate”

Dudley Clendinen on building stories from life and choosing grace in death: “I don't quibble with fate”

Our latest Editors' Roundtable examines Dudley Clendinen's “The Good Short Life,” a career journalist's startling response to being diagnosed with ALS. In addition to two books (“A Place Called Canterbury”…
September 30, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
September Editors' Roundtable No. 2: The New York Times on facing death

September Editors' Roundtable No. 2: The New York Times on facing death

Our second Roundtable of September examines “The Good Short Life,” by Dudley Clendinen. Diagnosed with ALS, Clendinen reflects on the past suffering of those closest to him and decides that he would…
September 29, 2011
Andrea Pitzer