Ads on radio and news sites here in Seattle are promoting “Potted Potter,” a romp of a stage play that retells all seven Harry Potter books — more than 4,000 pages worth — in 70 minutes. Read more
By Trevor Pyle To guide readers through a thicket of bureaucracy and a shocking policy that had been born there, Caitlin Dickerson first had to slash through it herself. Once she had, the reporter for The Atlantic had unwound … Read more
A standard — some would say ideal — approach to effective narrative nonfiction is to follow a single, primary character through an intimate journey that illuminates a larger social situation. The key is to find a person to follow … Read more
There has been a small but steady wave of recent stories focused on the plight of women in Afghanistan, who have been stripped of their rights — to jobs, to education, to choosing their wardrobe or having their hair … Read more
A few years ago, Line Vaaben was eating a traditional Christmas dinner at her home in Copenhagen. Vaaben, a 2014 European Press Prize finalist, remembered a story that followed a potato from the field … Read more
As I write these words I am propped up in bed, six days into COVID, chipping through my fugue at a 6,000-word story that was due before I got COVID. It’s 99 degrees outside my window in Boise, Idaho, … Read more
The temperatures topped 100 Fahrenheit week (38+ Centigrade) up at the mountain cabin one day last week. The three-man yardscape crew seemed indifferent. They spent their first afternoon prepping the site; they dumped mounds of dusty gravel, unloaded heavy … Read more
Much attention has been rightly paid to the congressional hearings into events before, during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. By any account, it qualifies as a big deal. Perhaps one of the biggest … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This tribute is shared with permission from our friends at The Poynter Institute. Frank Clines arrived at The New York Times in 1958, one year before the death of that most brilliant Times writer … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of five posts from the 2022 Power of Narrative conference at Boston University. Read Ellen Barry on first-person narratives, Lizzie Johnson on deadline narratives, Debbie Cenziper on investigative … Read more
