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From a caress of love to a fist of fear
In her 20 years traveling the world as a freelance writer, Rachel Louise Snyder has covered a hurricane in Honduras, a tsunami in Indonesia, and the forced sterilization of women in Tibet. But no...
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How The New York Times tracked public data to produce “Killing Khashoggi”
Before humans learned to write, they documented their lives through images with technologies fashioned from materials at hand. To create the renowned galleries of animals — objects of fascination,...
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On trial for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire: Was an accused villain miscast as...
When Elizabeth Weil thought of profiling Max Harris, one of two people facing criminal charges for Oakland’s deadly Ghost Ship fire, she figured another reporter must already be on the story. The fire,...
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Reflections on the challenges and triumphs of masculinity in changing times
EDITOR’S NOTE: Authentic profiles are among the most rewarding, challenging and essential of journalistic art forms, requiring an alchemy of relationship, grit and elegance. The most successful often...
View ArticleRoy Peter Clark on the search for the “embedded narrative”
Not long ago, I came out of a theater in Tampa, Florida, and heard someone calling my name. It was Adan Martinez, a young college student who had just performed with a local symphony. He still wore...
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“A true war story is never moral.”
As the Memorial Day weekend approaches in the United States, war stories become part of an annual narrative commemorating those who served and died in battle. The stories often are woven from threads...
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What’s in a 50-year-old photo? The lingering gutwrench of the Vietnam War
I remember seeing the photo for the first time. It was spring, 1968. I was 17 years old, a high school senior who would register for the draft that coming June. The unfolding war in Vietnam had become...
View ArticleWhat a “true war story” is really about
We love hearing from Storyboard readers. A message from one, in response to last week’s pieces, inspired this U.S. Memorial Day post — something of a thoughtful holiday bonus. Among last week’s posts,...
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A tribute: On Herman Wouk and the incandescence of “Youngblood Hawke”
The news that Herman Wouk, whose epic World War II novels kept him atop the best seller lists for much of his literary career, died May 17 at the age of 103, led me back more than five decades, and to...
View ArticleGetting in the writing zone
A chronic reality of writing: It’s a struggle. Or so it often (always?) seems if you’re the writer. You aren’t sure whether your information is sound, where to start your story, what’s essential and...
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A sex worker plunges to her death and a reporter demands to know: Who was she?
Smart journalists begin their stories with a simple premise: They know nothing. They recognize that their job is to find out everything they can about a subject, piercing their veil of ignorance and...
View ArticleNot just a guilty pleasure: “Game of Thrones” holds essential writing lessons
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the world can’t seem to get enough of “Game of Thrones,” we are co-publishing this essay with our friends at The Poynter Institute, with their permission. Full disclosure: I...
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Rethinking how we see and understand news — and who frames it
If you have taken a picture and shared it with no text, or studied a news image to see if it was “real,” or wondered if “photography” is an accurate term for the digital wave overwhelming and...
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A “book report” on The Mueller Report
Alexandra Petri EDITOR’S NOTE: The Mueller Report (capitalized by most news organizations, which is interesting unto itself) was released April 18, 2019 — almost two months ago. Also on April 18,...
View ArticleA writer who cared enough to strap in; an editor who cared enough to show up
EDITOR’S NOTE: It is not unusual these days to come across yet another announcement of the death of a notable journalist. Those who came into the profession during the heady times of the post-WWII...
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“There are more what-ifs than there are stars in the sky.”
Jill Lepore is not a florid writer. No trickery with words. No embellishments to wow the reader. Rather, her writing typically demonstrates deep curiosity, methodical reporting, and clear connections....
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A literary take on a hole in the ground
Faced with nonstop jackhammering, the steady growl and beep of dump trucks, and sickening spirals of dust, residents of a peaceful Manhattan neighborhood searched for ways to take action against a...
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An amputee runs a grueling ultra-marathon in the desert; a reporting team...
Jeré Longman has almost always been a sports reporter. Aside from a few years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he covered Dallas Public Schools for the Dallas Times Herald, he’s been writing...
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“As I wrote, I was also being written.”
Novelists often speak of their characters as real people. They are people who have lives that existed before the moment the novel begins and outside its frame, and who reveal their full selves over...
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An investigative journalist tries his hand at a true crime series for middle...
As a reporter, Bryan Denson seems to have done it all — working the police beat, writing longform narratives, teaming up on big investigative features, and producing a nonfiction book. While a reporter...
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