“Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war...
Why is it great? Fresh from celebrating Earth Day, we’re focusing on the environment and climate change this week at Storyboard. What better than a quote from Carson, who opened many people’s eyes to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
5(ish) Questions for Michelle Mizner and Katie Worth and “The Last Generation”
Fans of the PBS program “Frontline” are familiar with the news documentary series’ format: its staccato theme music, vaguely reminiscent of a typewriter; the sober voice-over narration of Will Lyman,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Altered states of storytelling at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
The L.A. Times Book Festival, held over the weekend of April 21-22, is an annual celebration of reading and literary culture in a town often stereotyped as not exactly bookish. But Hollywood runs on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Steve Almond and “Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country”
In the first half of my Nieman Fellowship, a great number of class discussions revolved around analyzing the outcome of the election that brought Donald Trump to power. Why had it happened? How? What...
View ArticleWelcome to pizza, potluck and a story potlatch
I’m writing this from a mash-up of a magazine newsroom in Bucharest. The walls are smelly and stained from a recent flood in the apartment above. Desks are cluttered with grungy coffee cups, cold pizza...
View ArticleThe Pitch: At the Guardian’s Long Read, no rigid formula or geographic limits
Sex robots, violence in Mosul and the plan for Queen Elizabeth’s inevitable death. Those were among the subjects of the best stories last year on The Guardian’s eclectic longform site, The Long Read....
View Article“…you can’t write about this stuff and be boring. That would be a sin against...
Why is it great? I read Allison’s “Bastard Out of Carolina” when it was first published, about the time I was covering a range of social justice issues – gender, race, class, sexual orientation. I was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beyond Boko Haram: Pictures from Nigeria
Nigeria is a country rich in stories and in storytelling. Nigerians have long traditions of sharing their testimonies through literature and visual communication. The work of writers like Chinua Achebe...
View Article“A singing bagpipe joined the wind in the pines.”
Why is it so great? I have come to love bagpipes, perhaps because they conjur special moments in my life, perhaps because they are rooted in my maternal heritage. But I know many cringe at their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Feeding the world – and feeling despair
Editor’s note: The tragic news last week of suicides by creative celebrities Kate Spade and Andrew Bourdain captured headlines and emotions. But despair does not discriminate. Storyboard contributor...
View Article“They have to do everything the men did, except backwards and with ideals.”
WHY IS THIS SO GREAT? Or … is it? This might cause eyerolls as a “great sentence” pick. It’s not what most would call high literature, and likely will be breezed by in a fast read. Some might even call...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Learning to see beyond first sight
Editor’s note: We are trying out a new feature. Call it writing practice (with a nod to Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones,” where I first encountered the term). Or virtual workshopping. Or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“You can’t hit or write your way out of a shadow.”
Maryland Capital Gazette deputy editor Rob Hiassen Joshua McKerrow, Capital Gazette Why is this so great? Before we get to that, let me say I wish I had not had reason to stumble across it. The author...
View ArticleShadows cast on the love of a game
The story started in one direction and ended up going in a jarringly different one. But when the time came to write a feature on the Auburn Tigers softball team, ESPN’s Tom Junod went back to where...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or...
American flag, somewhere over Lake Superior off the shore of Bayfield, Wisconsin Jacqui Banaszynski What makes it great? Forgive the indulgence of the great-granddaughter of immigrants, and the...
View Article“She’s just telling what’s real out there that she sees.”
Why it’s so great: Tyler is a novelist, not a journalist. But the work of writing is the work of writing. In this New York Times profile by Charles McGrath – based on a rare bit of time with reclusive...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can you say … Thanks, and we miss you?
Editor’s note: We have written about Tom Junod’s 1998 Esquire profile of Mister Rogers before. The release of the documentary film, and the climate of the times, prompted us to revisit a piece that has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Avi Selk eulogizes the long life and too-soon death of Spider 16, and what...
EDITOR’S NOTE: Writing about science and animals (creatures?) can be challenging. It is essential to get it right. It is also essential to make it accessible. In other words, to translate the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Take Two: Avi Selk on spiders, aggregation and writing fast
EDITOR’S NOTE: Yesterday, we featured contributor Rebecca Boyle’s interview with Washington Post general assignment reporter Avi Selk about his intriguing, elegaic story of the world’s longest living...
View Article“Gary Robinson died hungry.”
Why is it great? My mentor Ron Speer of the Virginian-Pilot liked the opening line of the Bible for Greatest Short Lede Ever. I go with Buchanan. I’m hooked with four words. I can’t stop reading. Not...
View Article