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Contributor Archives: Andrea Pitzer

Nieman Storyboard’s top 10 posts for 2011

During the last days of December, we’ve been tweeting down Storyboard’s top 10 posts for the year. In case you haven’t been following along, here they are, all in one place (in reverse order):
10. Internet phenom Maud Newton’s “Why’s this so good?”:
“Raymond Chandler sticks it to Hollywood.”
9. Chris Jones, Esquire writer at large, talks with Nieman [...]

December Editors’ Roundtable: Vanity Fair on U.S. money trouble

Our last Roundtable of 2011 considers “California and Bust,” in which superstar business reporter Michael Lewis turns his keen eye away from analyzing European financial problems, looking instead toward the mountain of debt in his home country. The story ran in the November issue of Vanity Fair.
Tom Huang
Sunday and enterprise editor, The Dallas Morning News
In [...]

When I write the book: Nieman Reports on journalists who wrestle with long long-form

The Winter issue of Nieman Reports, with the theme “Writing the Book,” is now online. It includes contributions from digital publishers, narrative writers, and a passel of journalists who have gone on to tackle book-length projects. Here are a few highlights:
In “Writing a Life, Living a Writer’s Life,” former Nieman fellow Gaiutra Bahadur recounts her [...]

Elegy for an enforcer

If you’ve been on the New York Times’ website at all this week, or even the Internet, chances are you’ve seen or heard something about our latest Notable Narrative, “Punched Out: the Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer.”
The multimedia project tells the story of Derek Boogaard, a 28-year-old player found dead in his apartment [...]

Jeanne Marie Laskas on hidden lives, the search for the perfect protagonist, and the joys of long-form

Our November Editors’ Roundtable looked at “Hecho en América,” a story by GQ correspondent Jeanne Marie Laskas about migrant blueberry pickers in Maine. Laskas’ work has been featured previously on this site, and has won her a slot in the “Best American Sportswriting” anthologies four times. She has also written five books and been a contributing editor at [...]

November Editors’ Roundtable: GQ’s close-up on the people who bring you breakfast (and lunch, and dinner)

Our November Roundtable looks at “Hecho en América,” by Jeanne Marie Laskas. Laskas immerses herself in the world of migrant workers picking blueberries in Washington County, Maine, and illuminates the distance between the worlds of those who pick the berries and those who eat them. The story ran in the September issue of GQ magazine.

Laurie [...]

South Dakota to Moscow: Jocelyn Noveck profiles one American’s historic leap

This week, we’ve selected “From Rapid City to the Bolshoi in Moscow, American Dancer Takes Leap into Ballet” as our latest Notable Narrative. Telling the story of rising ballet star David Hallberg, AP writer Jocelyn Noveck tucks a life into less than 2,000 words.
It’s easy to imagine this piece done differently for a big magazine. [...]

Your brain on narrative: evolution and the story rope

“Our brains are hard-wired for story” is one common argument for why narrative is useful in journalism, in writing, in life. The phrase has always made me uncomfortable, because while humans have been telling stories for thousands of years, we aren’t yet very good at figuring out exactly what’s happening inside our noggins. (Which is [...]

Brady Dennis on “After the sky fell”

This week’s “Why’s this so good?” post looked at Brady Dennis’ 296-word story about a toll booth operator’s love for the wife he lost to cancer. The piece ran in 2005 as part of the St. Petersburg Times’ occasional series “300 words.” Dennis has since moved on to The Washington Post, where he is an [...]

Jessica Pressler on New York, “millennium girls” and the love story that wasn’t

This week’s Editors’ Roundtable dives into Jessica Pressler’s story “A Holly Golightly for the Stripper-Embezzlement Age,” from New York magazine. A contributing editor and blogger for New York since 2007, Pressler has profiled a wide range of subjects of late, from movie star Channing Tatum (for GQ) to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Prior to joining New York, she [...]