There’s a video of Britney Spears shot in 2007, not long after Valentine’s Day. She’s pacing around a tattoo parlor, where she’s just gotten a pair of bright red lips inked on her wrist and a cross etched onto her hip. She’s bookended by men so large their silhouettes rival refrigerators, but enough of her [...]
Tag Archives: The New York Times
Gay Talese has a Coke*: reflections of a narrative legend, in conversation with Esquire’s Chris Jones
December 2, 2011 – 2:08 pm
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 [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 22: Hank Stuever on
9-ish
November 29, 2011 – 11:12 am
There are two stories from the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, that to me remain better than all the others. R.W. Apple wrote a news analysis that ran on the front of the New York Times on Sept. 12. Hank Stuever wrote an essay that ran on the front of the Style section of the [...]
Jessica Pressler on New York, “millennium girls” and the love story that wasn’t
October 28, 2011 – 12:52 pm
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 [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 17: Meyer Berger delivers on deadline
October 25, 2011 – 11:32 am
The Pulitzer Prize for breaking news tends to go to a massive team effort, often one in which a dozen or more reporters feed material to one, two or even three writers, who pull together the main story. Papers like The New York Times and L.A. Times used to call this the “swarm” approach to [...]
October Editors’ Roundtable No. 1: The New York Times on autism and adulthood
October 14, 2011 – 4:31 pm
Our first October Rountable looks at “Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World,” by Amy Harmon. Harmon tells the story of Justin Canha, a 21-year-old illustrator hoping to live on his own but facing challenges both predictable and surprising in that quest. The story ran on September 18 on page 1 of the [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 14: Sandra Cate on DIY cooking in a county jail
October 6, 2011 – 2:33 pm
Freed from the captivity of home cookery and the rarefied practice of restaurant criticism, food is now a legitimate lens for thoughtful cultural journalism. It’s also a massive revenue generator in mainstream media, as many commentators pointed out recently, when news hit that a cooking show called “The Chew” would oust the famed soap opera “All [...]
Dudley Clendinen on building stories from life and choosing grace in death: “I don’t quibble with fate”
September 30, 2011 – 4:57 pm
Our latest Editors’ Roundtable examines Dudley Clendinen’s “The Good Short Life,” a career journalist’s startling response to being diagnosed with ALS. In addition to two books (“A Place Called Canterbury” and “Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America”), Clendinen has written for GQ, the St. Petersburg Times, the Atlanta [...]
September Editors’ Roundtable No. 2: The New York Times on facing death
September 29, 2011 – 6:59 pm
Our second Roundtable of September examines “The Good Short Life,” by Dudley Clendinen. Diagnosed with ALS, Clendinen reflects on the past suffering of those closest to him and decides that he would prefer to approach death on his own terms, ending his life at a moment of his choosing. His essay ran July 9 in the New [...]
What we’re reading: 9/11 ten years on, bat extinction and a 70-year-old mystery
August 26, 2011 – 11:49 am
In our latest roundup of narrative and narrative-ish pieces, we’ve pulled together stories reflecting on 9/11, researchers dealing with an unstoppable disease, the end of a family fishing dynasty, and a tale tracking the convoluted path of rare U.S. coins the government has been fighting to get back since the days of FDR.
“Karen Wagner’s [...]
