Narrative News

Jerry Brewer on change-up pitches, round characters and how to ruin a perfectly good column

Jerry Brewer on change-up pitches, round characters and how to ruin a perfectly good column

In our last post, the Editors’ Roundtable looked at a Seattle Times column about a record-setting Girl Scout cookie-seller who got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Seattle…
June 16, 2011
Andrea Pitzer

From research to story: more from the BIO 2011 conference

A bevy of biographers gathered in May in Washington, D.C., at the second annual Compleat Biographer Conference to discuss how to chase down subjects and make their lives into great stories.…
June 2, 2011
Andrea Pitzer

The power of place: Robert Caro on setting at the 2011 BIO Conference

“Show, don’t tell” is a mantra of narrative writers everywhere, but even the most useful adage can lose meaning with repetition. Before a lunchtime audience of writers at the Second…
May 24, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Amy Ellis Nutt on writing a Pulitzer-winning story: tell "readers something they don't know"

Amy Ellis Nutt on writing a Pulitzer-winning story: tell "readers something they don’t know"

The Star-Ledger's Amy Ellis Nutt won this year's Pulitzer Prize for feature writing with “The Wreck of the Lady Mary,” her five-chapter story on the sinking of a scallop boat off…
May 20, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Life in the cave: highlights from Boston University’s “The Rebirth of Storytelling” conference

Life in the cave: highlights from Boston University’s “The Rebirth of Storytelling” conference

What does it take to make a great story? Boston University’s “The Power of Narrative” conference, held on campus April 29-30, aimed to offer some insights. The event included the kind…
May 10, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Ben Montgomery explores a mystery: "This is a story about grief"

Ben Montgomery explores a mystery: "This is a story about grief"

Yesterday our Editors’ Roundtable looked at “When a diver goes missing, a deep cave is scene of a deeper mystery,” by Ben Montgomery. An enterprise reporter at the St. Petersburg Times,…
May 5, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Eliza Griswold on religion, violence and reporting

Eliza Griswold on religion, violence and reporting

We spoke last week with Eliza Griswold, winner of the 2011 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for “The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam.” In…
May 3, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Eli Saslow on writing news narratives, creating empathy and characters' defining moments

Eli Saslow on writing news narratives, creating empathy and characters’ defining moments

Our latest Notable Narrative comes from The Washington Post’s Eli Saslow, who wrote about a Wisconsin man’s attempt to understand what the federal budget debate means for his family. In…
April 29, 2011
Andrea Pitzer
Oliver Broudy on modern saints, magazine writing and crossing the border to Kindle Singles

Oliver Broudy on modern saints, magazine writing and crossing the border to Kindle Singles

Seeing the gaggle of outlets now dedicated to digital long-form (The Atavist, Kindle Singles and Byliner Originals, just for starters), I wanted to talk to a narrative journalist who had written…
April 21, 2011
Andrea Pitzer

The 2011 Pulitzer Prizes: a sampler of narrative winners

Yesterday afternoon Columbia University announced this year’s Pulitzer Prizes in New York. So many journalists and writers were waiting online for the magic moment that the befuddled Pulitzer site was…
April 19, 2011
Andrea Pitzer