Continuing a Nieman Foundation narrative writing speaker series set up by Paige Williams, journalism legend Gay Talese appeared on campus two weeks ago in conversation with Esquire’s Chris Jones. The Harvard Writers at Work lecture series co-sponsored the standing-room-only event, where Talese and Jones were introduced by current Nieman fellow Adam Tanner of Reuters. What follows is [...]
Tag Archives: Sports Illustrated
Gay Talese has a Coke*: reflections of a narrative legend, in conversation with Esquire’s Chris Jones
December 2, 2011 – 2:08 pm
“Why’s this so good?” No. 10: Ralph Wiley tackles Jim Brown
September 6, 2011 – 1:22 pm
In “Nobody Else is Jim Brown,” sportswriter Ralph Wiley constructs a profile of perhaps the greatest football player in NFL history, a man so legendary that the word legend actually applies. Written for ESPN’s Page 2, the piece shows Wiley at his best. It’s a day in the life writ large, more like a Life in [...]
Cynthia Gorney on embracing complexity “while maintaining a sense of justified outrage”
August 19, 2011 – 10:31 am
Our latest Editors’ Roundtable looks at Cynthia Gorney’s story “Too Young To Wed,” from the June issue of National Geographic. In addition to her work for National Geographic, Gorney is a professor at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. Before joining the Berkeley faculty, she worked [...]
Death and football: reconstructing the last days of Max Gilpin
January 27, 2011 – 5:07 pm
In our latest Notable Narrative, “The Boy Who Died of Football,” Sports Illustrated senior writer Thomas Lake takes on the collapse of high school football player Max Gilpin during team practice in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2008. Gilpin’s subsequent death loads the story with power, and Lake labors under a kind of accountability to the dead, as [...]
What we’re reading: gay culture in the Middle East, stories for a body held hostage, and an athlete dying young
December 2, 2010 – 1:50 pm
Our latest “what we’re reading” draws on the stalwart print newspapers and magazines that have carried the banner of long-form narrative for so long. From a 5-part investigation of a shipwreck to a story of an athlete’s final months, these narratives show that traditional storytelling lives on.
NEWSPAPERS
“Laura Hillenbrand releases new book while fighting chronic fatigue [...]
Gary Smith on intimacy and connecting with subjects: “Any uneasiness you bring is going to cost you dearly”
August 2, 2010 – 4:29 pm
On the last day of the Mayborn Conference, Sports Illustrated’s Gary Smith read from and discussed “Shadow of a Nation,” his 1991 story about a Crow basketball player named Jonathan Takes Enemy. Smith has been at Sports Illustrated for nearly two decades, winning more National Magazine Awards than any other writer. He’s known for his [...]
What we’re reading, second edition: in which we offer soccer balls, the Book of Revelation and a visit to the Khyber Pass
June 30, 2010 – 3:38 pm
In our new installment of written work worth checking out, we encourage you to think about the history of the soccer ball, the awesomeness that was the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, the expanding ramifications of the oil disaster in the Gulf, the many things we receive from our parents, and one former Marine’s problem with the [...]
Thomas Lake on mythical storytelling and the editing process: “sometimes it’s hard to kill your darlings”
June 17, 2010 – 2:18 pm
We spoke by phone this week with Atlanta magazine senior editor Thomas Lake about his story, “The Golden Boy and the Invisible Army,” our latest Notable Narrative. Lake, who also freelances for Sports Illustrated and is a regular commenter over at Gangrey.com, has previously worked at the St. Petersburg Times and The Florida Times-Union. His [...]
Sports Illustrated’s Alexander Wolff on writing and the future of narrative: “I’m not sure I’m going to be on that train”
April 1, 2010 – 1:36 pm
Yesterday, we highlighted a Sports Illustrated story about the lone goal from a U.S.-England World Cup match in 1950 and the tragic disappearance of the man who scored it. Today, we hear from Alexander Wolff, who wrote the article. If writing awards could play ball, Wolff could field a football team from his trophy case, but in these [...]
Joe Gaetjens’ magic at the 1950 World Cup (and everything it didn’t save him from)
March 31, 2010 – 3:02 pm
Writing about an astounding soccer goal made half a century ago by the U.S. team in the first round of the 1950 World Cup, sportswriter Alexander Wolff could have focused on the circumstances of Joe Gaetjens’ improbable header, which led to the shocking 1-0 defeat of Great Britain. In our latest Notable Narrative, however, the [...]
