This piece is full of French’s signature muscular approach to theme and idea. He’s eager to frame a story, provide his "take." His gutsiness makes him an authoritative and compelling guide. He establishes themes at the outset. His themes in … Read more
This piece is built on well-written sentences, scenes with terrific dialogue and vivid characters. Montgomery poses a question—how to survive when survival was so tough even before the hurricane—which he resolves with a lovely scene. This story has a refreshingly … Read more
This is an efficient, clearly recounted story about the rescue of a fishing boat that got caught in Hurricane Katrina. The structure is coherent and divided well into its six sections. We wondered if the tale’s suspense might have been … Read more
Kiernan neither romanticizes nor demonizes her characters in this story. Her approach to the story is complex and intelligent. We like the lead, which imparts so much information in an innovative and intriguing way. We also like that this is … Read more
In this short piece, Benham must do justice to the bizarreness of the event and its details but not belittle the little girl’s fear and injury. We like the details that Benham provides, and the language she uses to do … Read more
This is a lovely series. We like the precision of the writing, the sensible yet sensitive attention to the protagonist’s complicated immigrant life. Persaud writes respectfully and with poise, never over-dramatizing or caricaturing. She weaves into the tale useful and … Read more
This is a courageous series. Sugg looks closely, with compassion and detachment, at a subject that is doubly difficult: death among children. We admired her unflinching yet sensitive examination of one child’s particular death and also her exploration of the … Read more
Okay, so this series isn’t strictly narrative. It’s an exploration, via deep-thinking scientists, of some of the big questions of human existence. But it uses an important element of narrative—a knowing, amiable voice—to lead us on a fascinating tour—not from … Read more
This piece goes to show that in skilled hands, a “how I got the story” narrative can beguile readers, making them willing to encounter difficult, and in this case obscure, material. A science narrative is almost always, as here, … Read more
We like the lead in this piece: It’s got nice detail and foreshadows death. Gurnett then reconstructs her main character’s suicide attempt. We’d like to propose that the piece would be even better if it were even more purely narrative, … Read more
