Many would say that this piece is not strictly narrative, and we’d agree. But there are plenty of narrative elements in the story, and we believe they’re what make the piece so effective: close reporting, intimate scenes, a distinctive voice. Read more
A Buddhist monk from Thailand is visiting New York. Someone steals his bag. There’s no punch line, but it’s a nice narrative complication; and out of it Barry crafts a touching, even beautiful, tale about the intersection of different worlds … Read more
This is a story about an enormous collection of pictures. A man started the collection and marketed it as a service to graphic artists and others who needed visual inspiration. When the man died, one of his clients bought the … Read more
A harbor pilot steers a great ship through the Verrazano Narrows, the last task of his career. This piece is attentively and elegantly told. What we find most instructive is how Barron chose to approach the story. He looked for … Read more
Gross’s series is an example of using profile to examine larger social contexts or processes, in this case the college-admissions game. The style is airy, the content more weighty, the mix of which makes the piece both entertaining and substantive. Read more
In this final installment of the Times race series, a reporter turns her attention to another journalistic effort to address race in America. The Akron Beacon Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for its series exploring the racial attitudes of its … Read more
This piece is about the making of “The Corner,” a TV series about black drug addicts, told from their perspective. The script was based on a book by a white former (narrative) journalist, David Simon of The Sun. The director, … Read more
Holmes spent a year reporting this story about two drill sergeants—one black and one white—in a company at Fort Knox, Ky. The piece chronicles their jockeying for power, advancement and recognition. The men’s candor is remarkable—their comments about each other … Read more
LeDuff got a job on the cutting floor at a North Carolina slaughterhouse, where the work burns your muscles and dulls your mind. He hacked meat off of bone and watched blacks compete with Mexicans to survive under the watch … Read more
Ojito profiles two men, one black and one white, who have fled Cuba and live in Miami. In Cuba they were close friends; in America they have grown distant from and mistrustful of each other. They have been subsumed by … Read more
