Short Takes

What we’re reading, back-to-school edition: prison voices, the failure of imagination in storytelling, and the secret diary of a hedge fund manager

Teenage lifeguards abandon their perches to leathery veterans. The county fair's bounty of funnel cakes and fried beer peters out. Corduroy shopping starts in earnest. The academic year begins. In…
September 2, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we’re watching, from Korean War veterans to skate punk trespassers and a town that lives off prisons

This round of selections shows the diversity of visual storytelling, from drawings to documentary and interactive immersion. Whether it’s kinetic camera work or the power of a single subject, each…
August 17, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

The very, very personal post: Richard Morgan, Jennifer Lawler and a new kind of Notable Narrative

Sometimes long posts appear online that would feel out of place anywhere else. These pieces are often first-person, revelatory and not edited to fit the brand of a magazine, newspaper…
August 11, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we're reading: in which we consider segregated high school reunions, the vanishing middle class, notes from a Pynchon conference and "death in the age of the Internet"

As we try to get the mildew out of the swimsuits we left in the corner over the weekend, we wanted to leave you a pile of stories for when…
August 9, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
Gary Smith on intimacy and connecting with subjects: "Any uneasiness you bring is going to cost you dearly"

Gary Smith on intimacy and connecting with subjects: "Any uneasiness you bring is going to cost you dearly"

On the last day of the Mayborn Conference, Sports Illustrated’s Gary Smith read from and discussed “Shadow of a Nation,” his 1991 story about a Crow basketball player named Jonathan…
August 2, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we’re reading, third edition: In which we find the mystery in game shows, timeless art and the Dalai Lama’s Patek Philippe watch

Today we offer the latest fare from two long-form masters, as well as an oddball assortment of not-quite-narratives that still get to the heart of a story.CLASSIC NARRATIVES See how…
July 15, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we’re watching: in which we ponder people with scars, the making of sex dolls, a birth in Sierra Leone and the soul of Athens

videos from The Human ProjectThere has been some debate of late over just how "cinematic" documentary multimedia should be. (See the comments on this Khalid Mohtaseb post on the DSLR News…
July 8, 2010
Andrea Pitzer

What we’re reading, second edition: in which we offer soccer balls, the Book of Revelation and a visit to the Khyber Pass

In our new installment of written work worth checking out, we encourage you to think about the history of the soccer ball, the awesomeness that was the 1975 Cincinnati Reds,…
June 30, 2010
Andrea Pitzer
García Marquez Foundation celebrates magic journalism in Latin America

García Marquez Foundation celebrates magic journalism in Latin America

The task of selecting the best Latin American journalism is becoming more difficult every year for the Iberoamerican Foundation for New Journalism (FNPI), founded by writer and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel…
June 28, 2010
Alejandra Matus
Michael Hastings’ “The Runaway General” and the power of narrative

Michael Hastings’ “The Runaway General” and the power of narrative

While it may not spark a revolution in newsrooms, Michael Hastings' narrative profile of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in this week’s Rolling Stone has already made history. “The Runaway General,”…
June 23, 2010
Andrea Pitzer