A top reporter and storyteller, Eli Saslow was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing two weeks ago for his story about a struggling swimming pool salesman.Today, in the latest installment of our Annotation Tuesday! series, we’re looking at another of Saslow’s pieces, one that he wrote for ESPN The Magazine, about Rumeal Robinson, a former University [...]
Tag Archives: Eli Saslow
Prize storytelling: The 2013 Pulitzers
April 26, 2013 – 8:40 am
At some point, we’ll round up some of the better deadline storytelling from the past two weeks’ historic news out of Boston and Texas and Washington, D.C., and Mississippi and Cambridge and Watertown, but let’s end the week on a positive note, by remembering the great work of this year’s recently announced Pulitzer winner and finalists. In the features category, John Branch of the [...]
The Newtown narratives
December 17, 2012 – 10:56 am
The first of the Newtown narratives began appearing over the weekend. In the early wave, everyone was reading the Hartford Courant piece by Edmund H. Mahony and Dave Altimari, who began boldly with thunderous rounds” and shattered glass, and unfolded the story from there. The Washington Post’s Eli Saslow started his Sunday narrative with the image of the simple school ritual of attendance, and ended with the haunting [...]
Eli Saslow on detail, dignity, nut grafs, patience, reporting v. writing, and what’s in his notebook
November 23, 2012 – 12:49 am
Our latest Notable Narrative is an Eli Saslow story called “Life of a salesman,” about a swimming-pool salesman struggling in a terrible economy. Yesterday, we listed some of the story’s virtues. Today, we talk to Saslow, an award-winning Washington Post staff writer and ESPN The Magazine contributor, about the story and plenty more. Storyboard: Frank Firetti [...]
What we’re reading: one-eyed bullfighters, Boo, drug wars, breasts, death in the Yukon and swimming-pool salesmen
October 11, 2012 – 8:39 am
There’s a lot of great work out there right now, people! Here are some of the stories and storytellers who’ve caught our attention lately — and why. Highlights: a Mexican cemetery for drug lords, a near-death experience in a bullring, a guy trying to sell swimming pools in a down-economy, and reporting the history of breasts. [...]
David Finkel on winning the MacArthur “genius” grant
October 5, 2012 – 8:17 am
David Finkel of The Washington Post won a MacArthur “genius” grant this week for his body of long-form narrative journalism, particularly his coverage of the war in Iraq. In awarding him the coveted $500,000 prize, the MacArthur Foundation singled out his 2009 book The Good Soldiers, which recounts nearly a year in the life of [...]
Eli Saslow on writing news narratives, creating empathy and characters’ defining moments
April 29, 2011 – 8:09 am
Our latest Notable Narrative comes from The Washington Post’s Eli Saslow, who wrote about a Wisconsin man’s attempt to understand what the federal budget debate means for his family. In addition to working seven years at the Post and serving as a visiting professor at the University of Montana School of Journalism in 2010, Saslow [...]
