Notable Narrative: Daniel Miller and the Los Angeles Times’“Selling Stardom”
Daniel Miller’s coverage of the film business for the Los Angeles Times typically involves tracking the latest moves of the industry’s glitzy corporate behemoths. For his five-part series “Selling...
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The unexpected benefits of a springtime blizzard: reading a book by candlelight
A spring blizzard this week left me without power for 16 hours, and at first I felt unmoored because there was no heat, no light — and no Internet connection. It revealed how plugged in my life is....
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Annotation Tuesday! Rich Schapiro and “The True Story of the Fugitive Drug...
Rich Schapiro is always searching. Whether he’s writing a quick-hit 800-word spot feature for the New York Daily News or a magazine feature that’s taken years to report, Schapiro is on the hunt for...
View Article“Henry Ford believed the soul of a person is located in the last breath and...
Why is it great? This line, from the poet Elizabeth Alexander’s beautiful memoir about the death of her husband, knocked me out on a couple levels. First, I had no idea that Henry Ford and Thomas...
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5(ish) Questions: Rania Abouzeid and “The Jihad Next Door”
The first line of Rania Abouzeid’s story “The Jihad Next Door” could be the opener of a literary spy novel. “The eight men, beards trimmed, explosive belts fastened, pistols and grenades concealed in...
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The oranges of John McPhee, on the page and on backyard trees
This week I left the snows of New England for a visit to my old stomping grounds in California. It was a bit head-spinning for a couple of reasons: When I left last year, California was in drought. Now...
View ArticleThe Power of Narrative conference: how the tools of poetry can help journalists
At last year’s Power of Narrative conference at Boston University, the poet Verandah Porche asked Gay Talese which women writers he admired. “All of us seem to be on the beat of retrieving what’s...
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In a divided land, Bruce Springsteen and the runaway American dream
“In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream.” — “Born to Run,” Bruce Springsteen, 1975. There’s trouble in the heartland these days over promises broken and hopes betrayed....
View Article“She is the mother of two fatherless children and she was walking into the...
Like a lot of people, last week I reread the story that made Jimmy Breslin famous. It has his greatest hallmark: writing about the little guy, in this case Clifton Pollard, who was paid $3.01 an hour...
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A week where journalism, poetry, fiction and music converge = a dream week
Journalism, poetry, fiction and music all came together on Storyboard this week, so yes, call it a dream week for me. I love seeing how the same skills apply whether you’re a poet like Verandah Porche,...
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The making of binge-worthy serial narratives, from “S-Town” to “Framed”
When Colin McNulty was developing a podcast about Oprah Winfrey, the producer for WBEZ Chicago found inspiration in an unlikely place: “House of Cards,” the Netflix series about a scheming Washington...
View Article“But then the not-knowing returns, and it keeps him awake at night.”
Why is it great? For the second week in a row, our One Great Sentence comes from a gifted journalist who has just left us. Last week, the writer was Jimmy Breslin, who died after a long and brilliant...
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5(ish) Questions: Iran’s “Blogfather” talks algorithms, hyperlinks and the...
Six years is a long time to be away from cyberspace—especially when you’re known as the Blogfather. At one point, 20,000 visitors came to Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan’s site every day. Words, it...
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The politics of power: through Billie Holiday’s voice and an Iranian...
This week has me thinking of the dynamics of power, racial and sexual, governmental and personal. An Iranian blogger who goes to prison for six years for his words. The wife of a famous (and famously...
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Annotation Tuesday! Kent Russell and “They Burn Witches Here”
Some people are made for what they do. Steph Curry was made to play basketball. Dave Chappelle to deliver jokes. You get that feeling with Kent Russell and his writing. He makes the difficult appear...
View Article“I go to sleep every night knowing I have the blood of so many on my hands...
Why is it great? Chivers just won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his magazine profile of Sam Siatta, a Marine suffering from PTSD. How did he make a story that has been told many times...
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Why’s This So Good? Hunter S. Thompson and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
It’s hard, I know, to make a case for gonzo journalism in an age when reality is beset by exaggeration, even lies. And yet I’ve found myself drawn back to the work of Hunter S. Thompson, who had an...
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Haven’t read those Pulitzer winners yet? Here’s some great storytelling in...
This week, journalists had their version of the Oscars (minus the red carpet and catty remarks about who-wore-what). The Pulitzer announcements are always an electric moment in a newsroom. Back in the...
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5(ish) Questions: David Grann and “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Sometimes the idea for a book springs from what you don’t know. David Grann had never heard of the “Osage Murders” until a historian he was talking to mentioned the series of mysterious deaths among...
View Article“Barcantier, of Le Kremlin, who had jumped in the river, tried in vain to...
Why is it great? Félix Fénéon (1861-1944) was a clerk in the French War Office during World War I, a literary editor, art dealer, anarchist and journalist. While working for Le Matin in 1906, he wrote...
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