In good fiction, the reader absorbing a compelling narrative never notices the writer as intermediary. In nonfiction, that translator’s presence is inevitable. Since the former is the ideal relationship with the reader, the more you can bring that non-point of view to nonfiction narrative, the better. In other words, as a writer, no matter what the hell you’re writing, do your best to kill your ego, even if those are mutually exclusive ideals. (i.e.: He could have told the story of the effect of that atomic bomb on an innocent city by telling us what he found when he went over there, and it would have been a good piece. Instead he gave the story over to the six survivors, and it earned a place in immortality.) Read more
When Amy Wallace profiled then-Variety editor Peter Bart for Los Angeles magazine, she took on issues of access, personality, misdirection, industry politics, journalism and retaliation. To write about a guy who’s been called “the most hated … Read more
@GlobeMoskowitz One of the most riveting stories to emerge from the Boston Marathon bombing coverage was the Boston Globe piece, by Eric Moskowitz, about “Danny,” the young Chinese … Read more
Pamela Colloff’s annotated “The Innocent Man” continues today, with the second and final part. (To read Part 1, go here.) The timing couldn’t be better. On Monday, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) named Colloff’s finely reported Texas … Read more
The City and Regional Magazine Association and the Missouri School of Journalism this week announced finalists for the 2013 National City and Regional Magazine Awards. Los Angeles logged the most nominations, followed by Texas Monthly, Atlanta magazine and Philadelphia magazine. Read more
Why hasn’t anybody Hunter S. Thompsonized this election? Or have they, and we missed it? Esquire’s Charlie Pierce approacheth – In the interest of keeping you abreast of news that hasn’t happened yet, I would like to introduce you … Read more
In Part 3 of our recap of Romania’s “Power of Storytelling” conference on narrative journalism, radio producer Starlee Kine talked about story forms and themes; Esquire‘s Mike Sager talked about listening, and about suspending disbelief; and Pulitzer winner Alex Tizon talked about writing … Read more
In Part 2 of our recap of Romania’s “Power of Storytelling” conference on narrative journalism, Pulitzer winner Jacqui Banaszynski wrote a short essay about why she and eight other North American storytellers traveled to Bucharest to talk stories before … Read more
The day I left Bucharest, the International Herald-Tribune ran a front-page story about the shambles that is Romania. After three visits there in three years, I can tell you that it is, indeed, a mess. Communism is lifted and people … Read more
Early this month, an all-star pack of North American storytellers flew halfway around the world, to Romania, to talk about narrative journalism. They took the stage before a sold-out audience and one by one talked about stories. They got into fear, … Read more
