Notable Narratives

Notable Narrative: Bernt Jakob Oksnes and "The Baby in the Plastic Bag"

Notable Narrative: Bernt Jakob Oksnes and “The Baby in the Plastic Bag”

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet bucked the short-attention-span trend by committing to a nine-part serial -- and it paid off both in readers and a powerful narrative about an infant left…
March 7, 2017
Kari Howard
Two top New York Times editors talk about the yearlong project "Murder in the 4-0"

Two top New York Times editors talk about the yearlong project “Murder in the 4-0”

With crime at historic lows in the city, the paper decided to "delve deeply into deaths, and lives, that might otherwise be ignored" in a Bronx precinct where homicides persist.…
November 29, 2016
Kari Howard
The Pulitzer at 100: Michael Parks and the unraveling of apartheid

The Pulitzer at 100: Michael Parks and the unraveling of apartheid

Former foreign correspondent Scott Kraft reflects on an unflinching portrait of a nation on the brink of historic change by his Los Angeles Times predecessor in South Africa
September 8, 2016
Scott Kraft
Notable Narrative: Shane Bauer and “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard”

Notable Narrative: Shane Bauer and “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard”

The Mother Jones reporter on the risks, rewards and lessons learned after going undercover inside America’s private prison system
July 21, 2016
Davis Harper
From Esquire Classic: Tom Junod on "Missing"

From Esquire Classic: Tom Junod on “Missing”

Tiffany Whitton was last seen on video surveillance footage from a Marietta, Georgia, Walmart one night in September 2013. The video shows the twenty-six-year-old woman intoxicated and shoplifting; with her…
May 6, 2016
Alex Belth

Esquire Classic: Mark Warren on the odyssey of Stephanie Lee, “Patient Zero”

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005, Esquire executive editor Mark Warren and writer at large Tom Junod drove to Mississippi to visit the displaced families of…
March 2, 2016
Alex Belth

Esquire Classic: Mark Zwonitzer on the making of “What It Takes”

“What It Takes,” Richard Ben Cramer’s exhaustive account of the 1988 presidential election, took so long to report and write—six years in all—that it wasn’t published until the 1992 election.…
February 24, 2016
Alex Belth

From Esquire Classic: Bill Zehme and Johnny Carson’s last interview ever

How one writer got an iconic talk show host to step out of his self-imposed media exile
February 16, 2016
Alex Belth

From Esquire Classic: Looking at John Sack’s “M”

John Sack is an integral part of Esquire lore. This was the guy who sneaked aboard an American landing ship during the Korean War to interview Chinese POWs; the guy…
January 28, 2016
Aleszu Bajak

Notable Narrative: Ken Armstrong, T. Christian Miller and “An Unbelievable Story of Rape”

Two reporters working for different organizations combined to create a better story
January 26, 2016
Michael Fitzgerald