I’d heard the story many times before, but I still couldn’t believe it: Gay Talese pinned his manuscript pages to the wall of his office. He then walked across the room to his desk. On it rested a pair of … Read more
Most 20-something sports journalists don’t find themselves covering something as raw and emotional as the aftermath of one of the deadliest natural disasters in American history. But here was Benjamin Hochman, sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree hotel in Dallas with the quarterback of Tulane University, who broke down in … Read more
The U.S. Supreme Court this week (June 17, 2020) ruled that the Civil Rights act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which the majority said were inherently included under the … Read more
With writing, as with most things, you get better with practice. Just ask an athlete. Or a sports reporter. Derrick Goold, baseball writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, guesses that he writes more than 400 stories a year about … Read more
The first year I had to work from home, it was dictated by a crisis. During a weekend visit with me and my family, my mother contracted bacterial meningitis and nearly died. In less than 48 hours, she went … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay first appeared in The Cabin, a center for writers in Idaho. It is used with permission. Also, read Kim Cross’s Writer’s Survival Guide: Tips for defying distraction. On … Read more
Journalism is, at core, a reactive profession. Something happens; journalists react. Then they cover the counter-reaction to the reaction, and track any consequences as they dribble out. I used to think of this as the Day 1-Day 2 story … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is published in partnership with the Poynter Institute. I have come to believe that all readers read all stories twice — all the time. The first reading comes through the … Read more
A recent One Great Sentence post, about a line from Dan Zak’s essay for the Washington Post about the political culture of Iowa, inspired me to add a few thoughts. The sentence in question is the … Read more