EDITOR’S NOTE: Writing about science and animals (creatures?) can be challenging. It is essential to get it right. It is also essential to make it accessible. In other words, to translate the hard-to-know world to a semblance of the known … 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
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
When Amy Padnani moved from The New York Times’ news desk to its obits department last year, she was charged with the task of “exploring different ways of storytelling with obituaries.” “It’s a forum for people to talk to … Read more
It wasn’t the sensational headline — “The Real-Life Mad Max Who Battled ISIS in a Bulletproof BMW” — that grabbed my attention. It was the next bit. “Here is a person I came to really like and admire – … Read more
Jay Allison is a pioneer in the world of radio storytelling. Nearly 25 years ago, he founded Atlantic Public Media, which in turn birthed WCAI, the public radio station for Cape Cod and its surrounding islands; the Public Radio Exchange … Read more
You might not think of consumer columnists as narrative storytellers, or investigative reporters. But journalist Dave Lieber, “The Watchdog” for the Dallas Morning News, is a big fan of the creative-writing techniques of the New Journalism movement of the … Read more
Stories about anti-immigrant raids and deportations can take on a sheen of the generic: a series of action-movie snapshots coupled with thousand-foot views of policy, statistics and ideology that tackle the facts but miss the eye-level truth. “As a … Read more
Freelance journalist and essayist Liana Aghajanian has hopscotched around the globe, reporting on stories as far apart as the first record store in Mongolia, an Arizona man looking for “the holy grail of botany,” and the Muslim … Read more
In her piece “The Living Disappeared” for The California Sunday magazine, reporter Bridget Huber turns the complicated, still-unfolding story of the missing children from Argentina’s military dictatorship into a relatable narrative about loss. “If you’re really gripped by … Read more
