Joan Didion

“Won’t it be a fine day when anthology specifically focused on women journalists won’t make any sense?”

By Kari Howard• Narrative News• November 10, 2017

This week we spotlighted talented women on Storyboard — be they writers, performers or proto-feminists of the 18th century. I love this quote from Adrian LaBlanc, one of the women included in “The Stories We Tell” anthology below: “I won’t be … Read more

5(ish) Questions: Patsy Sims and “The Stories We Tell: Classic True Tales by America’s Greatest Women Journalists”

By Kari Howard• 5 Questions• November 7, 2017

The 1967 edition of the annual “Best Magazine Articles” anthology has six names on the cover: Gay Talese, Gore Vidal, Stephen Becker, Conrad Aiken, Conrad Knickerbocker and Tom Wolfe. Underneath those names it says, “and others.” … Read more

The Joan Didion documentary: a nephew’s loving portrait of “a cool customer”

By Kari Howard• Narrative News• November 2, 2017

In her memoir about the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion writes about the night she lost the man who can only be described as her other half. She recalls how a social worker described her to … Read more

The future of journalism: amid all the fretting, having faith in the ability to move people

By Kari Howard• Narrative News• February 3, 2017

Just in time for the weekend, here’s a little list of some of the things I’ve been listening to and reading this week, some of it online — Storyboard included, natch — and some of it on vinyl or actual … Read more

“What I can hear are occasional coyotes and a constant chorus of ‘Baby the Rain Must Fall’ from the jukebox in the Snake Room next door, and if I were also to hear those dying voices, those Midwestern voices drawn to this lunar country for some unimaginable atavistic rites, ‘rock of ages cleft for me,’ I think I would lose my own reason.”

By Kari Howard• One Great Sentence• February 1, 2017

Why is it great? This essay has a more famous line, which is being quoted a lot these days: “Then is when we join the fashionable madmen, and then is when the thin whine of hysteria is heard in … Read more

The 5 Most Read “Why’s This So Good?” Essays

By Michael Fitzgerald• Why's This So Good?• January 20, 2016

We just posted our 100th “Why’s This So Good?,” Abeer Najjar’s look at the Susan Dominus story in the New York Times Magazine, “Hana.” Nearly twice a month since June 2011, we’ve had accomplished  journalists … Read more

Leslie Jamison: The Possibilities of the Personal

By Cristian Lupșa• Story Craft• October 21, 2015

Leslie Jamison at the The Power of Storytelling international conference in Bucharest. The Power of Storytelling international conference in Bucharest just … Read more

“Power of Narrative” Conference: Three ways to tell a story

By Gabe Bullard• Narrative News• March 31, 2015

Editor’s note: In his second and final installment from last weekend’s “Power of Narrative” conference at Boston University, current Nieman Fellow Gabe Bullard explores strategies for storytelling as outlined by author Joshua Wolf Shenk during his session at the … Read more

Annotation Tuesday! Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah and “If He Hollers Let Him Go”

By Elon Green• Annotation Tuesday!• October 7, 2014

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah and I met recently in her Brooklyn apartment to talk about “If He Hollers Let … Read more

Best of the best of the best?

By Louise Kiernan• Short Takes• October 2, 2014

Here’s a highly curated list for you. Robert Atwan, the editor of the “Best American Essays” series, has selected for the Publishers Weekly website his top 10 essays since 1950. Atwan is careful to point out that he chose the best … Read more