EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third dispatch from the 2024 Power of Narrative conference at Boston University. For the others, see deadline narratives by a Wall Street Journal podcast team, and the braided structure … Read more
By Line Vaaben Much of my shaping as a journalist traces back 25 years, when I covered a deadly fire in Sweden. But it wasn’t until I returned to the scene a quarter-century later that I realized how the … Read more
By Chip Scanlan The best narrative writers know they need not just to interview after the fact, but to observe in the moment. They want to be on the scene, where they see characters and action unfold in real … Read more
By Trevor Pyle The world of online influencers — especially those who trade in sexual content — is an economic behemoth that’s often-murky and often-mocked. But Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell used his remarkable story on a pair of … Read more
By Tom Warhover There’s a war on words and images out there. Book banning in schools is trending these days, supercharged with the twin engines of social media and political extremism. Banning has reached historic highs. Book challenges are … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski The primary New York Times obit of Henry Kissinger listed it as a “38 MIN READ.” I checked the clock, my to-do list and my energy level. Then I bookmarked the obit for … Read more
By Carly Stern As a journalist who has covered disability issues, I’ve long been interested in nuanced and in-depth narratives surrounding the vast range of experiences with disability. That includes the lived experiences of people with disabilities as well … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski On Wednesday last week, I had a plan for the newsletter: All manner of tidbits were collecting in a file and it was time to use the best of them in an “items” column. On Thursday morning, … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts featuring Kim Cross on the successful pitch-and-proposal process that led to her new book, ‘In Light of All Darkness.’ In a companion post, Cross annotates the … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski My fandom of American TV police/crime procedurals goes back to sharing Agatha Christie mysteries with my mother, then watching “Perry Mason” on a not-very-sharp black-and-white TV. I loved trying to ID the bad guy (spoiler: on … Read more