Narrative News

Gay Talese at Boston University narrative conference: "I don’t want something juicy; I want the closest I can get to the truth"

Gay Talese at Boston University narrative conference: “I don’t want something juicy; I want the closest I can get to the truth”

The son of Italian immigrants grew up in a house where there were virtually no books. In the small, World War II-era town of Ocean City, N.J., Gay Talese spent…
April 24, 2010
Beth Macy

Robert Darnton looks to the past to imagine future news narratives: Walter Winchell and "paragraph men"

What might life without books look like, and how will the shift to digital texts and images change news narratives? Earlier this month, Nieman Lab staffer Megan Garber wrote about…
April 20, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Pulitzer Prizes, 2010 edition: Storyboard archives on finalists and winners

Pulitzer Prizes, 2010 edition: Storyboard archives on finalists and winners

Congratulations to this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners, whose names were announced on Monday. In honor of the new recipients and finalists, we’d like to highlight a few of our past interviews and…
April 14, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
David Grann on murder, madness and writing for The New Yorker

David Grann on murder, madness and writing for The New Yorker

After years spent thinking he would become a novelist, David Grann turned to nonfiction, realizing that if he found intriguing characters and situations in real life, he “simply had to excavate…
April 5, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

Sports Illustrated's Alexander Wolff on writing and the future of narrative: “I’m not sure I’m going to be on that train”

Yesterday, we highlighted a Sports Illustrated story about the lone goal from a U.S.-England World Cup match in 1950 and the tragic disappearance of the man who scored it. Today, we hear…
April 1, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Channeling "The Power of Narrative": Isabel Wilkerson on Boston University's April conference

Channeling "The Power of Narrative": Isabel Wilkerson on Boston University’s April conference

Looking for thoughts on narrative from big names in a small setting? We spoke last week with Isabel Wilkerson, director of narrative nonfiction at Boston University’s College of Communication, about…
March 29, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
National Magazine Award finalist Oliver Broudy on morbid curiosity and narrative as burlesque

National Magazine Award finalist Oliver Broudy on morbid curiosity and narrative as burlesque

We talked this week with Men’s Health contributing editor Oliver Broudy about his December 2009 story “Dead Man Driving,” which recreates the events leading up to the death of Adam…
March 25, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Paul Nicklen's Polar Obsession: "I had finally found a way to really connect with readers"

Paul Nicklen’s Polar Obsession: "I had finally found a way to really connect with readers"

Paul Nicklen, a photographer with National Geographic, was going to call his latest collection of images Bipolar Obsession on a lark, to reflect his trips to both poles. He settled…
March 17, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Narrative nonfiction events and conferences--is there something here for you?

Narrative nonfiction events and conferences–is there something here for you?

While tracking digital narrative experiments, we at Storyboard also aim to keep readers informed about the world of traditional print narratives. Today we’ve compiled a list of upcoming events for…
February 22, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Meg Laughlin on reporting from Haiti: "this is the face of the nation now"

Meg Laughlin on reporting from Haiti: "this is the face of the nation now"

Melissa Lyttle / St. Petersburg TimesSt. Petersburg Times reporter Meg Laughlin recently spent eight days in Haiti and the Dominican Republic covering the aftermath of the earthquake. She managed to…
February 4, 2010
Andrea Pitzer