Search results for “so you want to write a book”

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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
Mark Bowden on discovering narrative and the value of beginner's mind: "only if you are truly ignorant can you ask the truly ignorant question"

Mark Bowden on discovering narrative and the value of beginner’s mind: "only if you are truly ignorant can you ask the truly ignorant question"

Next up in our series of highlights from last weekend's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference is Mark Bowden. Author of "Black Hawk Down" and a former reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer,…
July 30, 2010
Mary Karr on truth: "the least of my problems as a memoirist, as a writer, is getting my facts right"

Mary Karr on truth: "the least of my problems as a memoirist, as a writer, is getting my facts right"

Author Mary Karr showed up Friday in Grapevine, Texas, in the middle of a thunderstorm to talk about telling the truth. The first keynote speaker at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction…
July 28, 2010
Katy Butler on Greek tragedy, reader comments and how "scenes keep you close to the bone truth of things"

Katy Butler on Greek tragedy, reader comments and how "scenes keep you close to the bone truth of things"

We recently spoke with Katy Butler about her New York Times Magazine piece, “What Broke My Father’s Heart,” our latest Notable Narrative. Butler, whose work has appeared in magazines such as…
July 6, 2010

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

Thomas Lake on mythical storytelling and the editing process: “sometimes it’s hard to kill your darlings”

We spoke by phone this week with Atlanta magazine senior editor Thomas Lake about his story, “The Golden Boy and the Invisible Army,” our latest Notable Narrative. Lake, who also…
June 17, 2010
Give Me Something To Read: collecting long-form journalism online

Give Me Something To Read: collecting long-form journalism online

[One in an occasional series of talks with people highlighting long-form journalism online. Prior posts in this series include a look at Gangrey.com.]From “a really little town” in Berkshire County,…
June 7, 2010
Ian Johnson on A Mosque in Munich: narrative as “the sugar around the medicine”

Ian Johnson on A Mosque in Munich: narrative as “the sugar around the medicine”

We spoke this week with writer Ian Johnson about his new book, A Mosque in Munich. After winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his coverage of the Falun Gong movement…
May 12, 2010
David Finkel on The Good Soldiers: "I’m not obligated to these men, but I do want to tell a story that they recognize"

David Finkel on The Good Soldiers: "I’m not obligated to these men, but I do want to tell a story that they recognize"

Tomorrow, Washington Post national enterprise editor David Finkel will receive the 2010 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Good Soldiers, a bruising account of a U.S. Army battalion’s service…
May 3, 2010
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