We were sad to miss the New Yorker Festival a ways back, but have finally had a chance to look at some videos from the event, and wanted to deliver a few highlights relevant to storytellers. There were a lot of tempting sessions – Atul Gawande! Janet Malcolm! David Remnick! – but given the number [...]
Contributor Archives: Andrea Pitzer
Ben Montgomery on a cold case: building a story and taking names
This week’s Notable Narrative recounts the murder of Claude Neal by a lynch mob in 1934 and introduces his family, which has been waiting for decades for someone to name the killers and hold them to account. Tampa Bay Times reporter Ben Montgomery talked with us by phone this week about reporting and writing “Spectacle: [...]
The Tampa Bay Times unearths a tale of grief and justice denied
Our latest Notable Narrative, “Spectacle: the lynching of Claude Neal,” comes from Ben Montgomery of the Tampa Bay Times. Montgomery reports that Neal, a 23-year-old African-American farmhand, was arrested in 1934 on suspicion of the rape and murder of a young white woman. Hidden from white mobs for days, he was eventually taken at gunpoint [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
