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 [...]
Tag Archives: John McPhee
Nieman Storyboard’s top 10 posts for 2011
December 30, 2011 – 1:11 pm
When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips
December 15, 2011 – 12:34 pm
There’s long-form narrative, and then there’s book-length narrative. Both are “long,” but a story that’s 300 pages long is a different proposition, for both writer and reader, from one that’s 3,000 words.
Writers embarking on their first book-length project respond to the challenge in different ways. Some panic, staring blankly at their screen as fine beads [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 2: McPhee takes on the Mississippi
July 7, 2011 – 2:11 pm
When the Mississippi River recently surged down through the middle of the country, a lot of people I follow on Twitter took the opportunity to point to John McPhee’s marvelous 1987 article “Atchafalaya.”I took their advice and revisited the piece.
After 24 years, the story is still valuable simply as a guide to the risks faced by [...]
“Long-form is absolutely not dead”: insights from ProPublica, “Frontline,” The New Yorker and “This American Life”
March 17, 2011 – 1:35 pm
The New School and ProPublica co-hosted a panel on long-form journalism last night at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York City. David Remnick of the The New Yorker, Ira Glass of “This American Life,” Raney Aronson-Rath of “Frontline,” and Steve Engelberg of ProPublica sat down with moderator Alison Stewart (of PBS’ “Need to Know”) [...]
Tracy Kidder in conversation with Darcy Frey, part 1: “Anyone who writes for a living and doesn’t admit to being very lucky is almost certainly insane”
October 21, 2010 – 4:16 pm
Last week, veteran writer Tracy Kidder offered his reflections on narrative nonfiction a public conversation with current Nieman Fellow Darcy Frey. Part of the Harvard Writers at Work series, the talk took place in a packed campus auditorium and was co-sponsored by the university’s Shorenstein Center, where Kidder is a fellow this fall. Winner of [...]
Rebecca Skloot on narrating history: “looking for that one family, that one person, that one moment that will help hold everything together”
July 16, 2010 – 12:53 pm
We spoke this week with Rebecca Skloot, author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” A longtime science writer with a commitment to narrative, Skloot has written for The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; and Discover, among other publications. Her book recounts the story of an African-American tobacco farmer whose cancer [...]
