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Matthew Pearl and “Into the Shadows” (Filed under: You can’t make this stuff up)
Matthew Pearl is a sucker for underdog stories, origin stories and untold stories. Those all came together when the author of best-selling historical fiction thrillers such as “The Dante Club” and “The...
View Article“NOVEMBER, noun. The eleventh twelfth of a weariness.”
Why is it great? I’ve never read Bierce’s satirical dictionary, but after coming across this sentence, it’s on the list. With just a few words, he conjures up the dreariness of the month (with...
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5(ish) Questions: Bridget Huber and “The Living Disappeared” of Argentina
In her piece “The Living Disappeared” for The California Sunday magazine, reporter Bridget Huber turns the complicated, still-unfolding story of the missing children from Argentina’s military...
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The power of historical nonfiction: “Let me tell you what happened right on...
This week on Storyboard we spotlighted two pieces of historical nonfiction, with one telling the story of America’s first detectives, back in the time of Charles Dickens, and the other reaching back...
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Finding lessons for literary journalism in the poetry of Rust Belt chronicler...
I read poetry. Chalk it up to an English degree, perhaps too much Milton or Wordsworth as an undergrad, or a line or two that I once might have penned one dark and stormy night. But as a journalist, I...
View Article“Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes...
Why is it great? This gorgeous definition of poetry could easily apply to literary journalism. Some of the best stories aren’t about something we’ve never heard of, but illuminates something we pass...
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Poetry finds a (calming) home in the hurly-burly of 21st century New York
Just a stone’s throw away from the high-finance hustle of the World Trade Center in NYC, I came across a simple blue-and-white sign on a glass door that read: The Poets House. The first thing I noticed...
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What does poetry have to do with journalism? Quite a bit, actually. Read on.
It was Poetry Week on Storyboard, which is pushing the envelope a bit for a site that explores the art and craft of narrative nonfiction. But I would argue that literary journalists can learn a lot...
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Notable Narrative: Jack Hitt and the birth of live-action TV news in “What...
When Jack Hitt got an assignment to write about Jerry Foster, a daredevil helicopter pilot who worked for a TV station in Phoenix in the ’70s and ’80s, he thought he had a plum adventure story. It...
View Article“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape...
Why is it great? A few weeks ago I went to an exhibit of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings in Seattle (a strange experience for someone who lives half an hour from the places he painted in Maine), and I was...
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Liana Aghajanian and the story of immigrants in America, one recipe at a time
Freelance journalist and essayist Liana Aghajanian has hopscotched around the globe, reporting on stories as far apart as the first record store in Mongolia, an Arizona man looking for “the holy grail...
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“Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.” (Haunted by this.)
The final half of this week’s One Great Sentence has stayed with me: “Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.” It’s about the winter landscape, but couldn’t it also apply to the craft...
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The Pitch: a veteran freelancer on pitching The New York Times Magazine and more
Recession, shuttered publications, the rise of online media — Paul Tullis has weathered it all as a freelancer for the better part of 24 years. What hasn’t changed: Story idea is king. What has, in...
View Article“We were taken to the ‘Oh, My God, Corner,’ a position near the escalator....
It’s hard to cull just one sentence from Sedaris’ embedded reporting on being a helper at Santaland, a place he describes as “a real wonderland” with a path taking visitors through the “ten thousand...
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“Draft No. 4”: the legendary John McPhee’s “master class in the writer’s craft”
John McPhee’s great subject has always been work. From his first book, “A Sense of Where You Are,” which came out in 1965 and portrays basketball star and Rhodes Scholar Bill Bradley, to “Uncommon...
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Want to read some of the best literary journalism of 2017? We’ve got you covered
Yes, it’s the time of year to look back on the good things that happened this year (and try to forget the bad, if only for a little while). First off: John McPhee wrote a book that gives lesser beings...
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Some legends of longform on the stories we need next
As audience development editor at Longreads, it’s my job to encourage readers to find and share unforgettable stories. Stories that help us understand this world. Stories that imagine a better one. “I...
View Article“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words...
This line comes from the last of Eliot’s “Four Quartets,” and it is a sometimes terrifying poem, full of fiery images like this striking one: The dove descending breaks the air With flame of...
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Start 2018 out right with some literary journalism conferences and workshops
The Power of Narrative: Telling True Stories in Turbulent Times March 23-25 Boston University Boston, Massachusetts It looks like the longest-running narrative journalism conference is making a point...
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For the New Year, a little bit of hope and a little bit of help
Friends sometimes tell me to take off my rose-colored spectacles, but I was determined to start out 2018 with a bit of inspiration on Storyboard — from some of our top literary journalists, and some of...
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