If there were a genre called moral narrative, this piece (and the book on which it is based) would exemplify it. The driving threads in the story are nothing less than forces of good and evil: anti- and pro-slavery factions … Read more
Here’s what Lake wrote when he emailed us this story: “Lots of people claim their lives have been transformed by miracles. Media coverage of these people tends to swing one of two ways: Either it’s uncritical and cheerleader-ish or it’s … Read more
This is a powerful, honest piece in which Orwell brilliantly gets at the complex human experience of living and ruling in a strange land. It’s a deeply compelling read that is also deeply political. It is also disturbingly graphic—not in … Read more
This series about two men who lost their legs to IEDs in Iraq is built on a wealth of close detail. The piece chronicles their struggles to recover from their injuries, both physically and psychologically. We appreciated the probing interest … Read more
There are two main characters in this series: first, the illness itself, which ravaged Norfolk and Plymouth, Va., in 1855. It killed one out of three people in the communities it reached. Its effects form a summary narrative of the … Read more
We like this series for its scrupulous attention to detail. Its descriptive passages pop with verbs; we are right there, walking with the imam as he starts his morning. Elliott balances narrative action and context, reminding the reader what the … Read more
Several things make this two-part narrative notable. The first and most visually obvious is the method of attribution. The footnotes illustrate Shalhoup’s vigorous reporting; they point to her ability to take mountains of details and write a clear-headed story. We … Read more
This piece was a finalist for a 2006 Pulitzer Prize. U.S.District Judge Joan Lefkow became famous after a man whose case she oversaw murdered her husband and mother in the basement of their home. Schmich follows Lefkow as she struggles … Read more
We like the spareness of this story’s telling, the nodding at the theme of human connection, but the stepping back from it, just as the events themselves do. We like the quirky details of Klein and the wonderfully timed line … Read more
Padilla set out to follow the recovery of Jeff May, one of the victims of the Red Lake school shootings — but found little narrative there. So Padilla and his editor, Laurie Hertzel, shifted the focus to Jeff’s brother, Shane, … Read more
