Why is it so great? I have come to love bagpipes, perhaps because they conjur special moments in my life, perhaps because they are rooted in my maternal heritage. But I know many cringe at their screech and whine. Outdoors … Read more
Nigeria is a country rich in stories and in storytelling. Nigerians have long traditions of sharing their testimonies through literature and visual communication. The work of writers like Chinua Achebe and photographers like Solomon Osagie Alonge plays a crucial role … Read more
Why is it great? I read Allison’s “Bastard Out of Carolina” when it was first published, about the time I was covering a range of social justice issues – gender, race, class, sexual orientation. I was clueless to who … Read more
Sex robots, violence in Mosul and the plan for Queen Elizabeth’s inevitable death. Those were among the subjects of the best stories last year on The Guardian’s eclectic longform site, The Long Read. “We don’t have a simple formula,” … Read more
I’m writing this from a mash-up of a magazine newsroom in Bucharest. The walls are smelly and stained from a recent flood in the apartment above. Desks are cluttered with grungy coffee cups, cold pizza crusts, giveaway pens. Ghosts of … Read more
In the first half of my Nieman Fellowship, a great number of class discussions revolved around analyzing the outcome of the election that brought Donald Trump to power. Why had it happened? How? What did we (the media, especially) miss … Read more
The L.A. Times Book Festival, held over the weekend of April 21-22, is an annual celebration of reading and literary culture in a town often stereotyped as not exactly bookish. But Hollywood runs on stories, so this year the festival … Read more
Fans of the PBS program “Frontline” are familiar with the news documentary series’ format: its staccato theme music, vaguely reminiscent of a typewriter; the sober voice-over narration of Will Lyman, the very definition of gravitas; and the montage of on-the-ground … Read more
Why is it great? Fresh from celebrating Earth Day, we’re focusing on the environment and climate change this week at Storyboard. What better than a quote from Carson, who opened many people’s eyes to the pollution of the seas decades … Read more
Douglas Haynes spent nearly 10 years working on his book “Every Day We Live is the Future: Surviving in a City of Disasters.” So when it was finally published late last year, he was understandably gratified that his decade-long project … Read more
