Bruce DeSilva wrote us this about the piece: “Rukmini Callimachi is an AP bureau writer with less than 5 years in the business. She set out to do a situationer on the 30 Katrina victims still unidentified and unburied. The … Read more
This piece uses narrative elements in shedding light on an irony of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as it gets worked out at one locus, one institution. The piece is narrative in the sense that it’s about “real” people and contains some … Read more
“One by one they fell away, the doctrinal pillars of the house his father built.” This is the story of Chuck Smith, Jr., and his movement away from the stern beliefs and fundamentalist community of his father’s church. The story … Read more
This piece is in some ways “just” another story about tragically ill children. But it’s also a useful exploration of ethical issues around the lengths parents will go, understandably, to save their sick children. In this case, a doctor uses … Read more
This is a fascinating, moving piece of memoir. We admired the masterly sequencing of the reader’s experience, from evocative scene to background and back to scene. But the background is also plot: Brown the character compulsively gathers information; it’s part … Read more
This piece tells the poignant story of one farm. It’s also, peripherally, a story about baseball. It’s not fully narrative in terms of structure; it uses more quotes than dialogue and scene. But it does trace the rise and fall … Read more
We notice the structural decisions Anton made in this piece. His first two sections summarize the narrative: Fire fighters are caught by a sudden blaze, and twelve men die. With the third section Anton backs up and begins revisiting the … Read more
Al Moreno is 60 and wants to join the Marines. He’s haunted by his father’s defection from the armed forces during the second world war; he wants the Marines to send him to Iraq so he can redress this painful … Read more
This piece provides a snapshot of one girl and her daily schedule. We guess it surprised a lot of readers, gave them a better sense for the competitive world of college aspirants. It’s a good example of using narrative to … Read more
This is an exceptional story: We notice the wealth of detail, reporting. We admire the efficiency of pace, of sentences, of movement from one event to another. We admire the varied sentence lengths, e.g.: “‘It should all be good now,’ … Read more
