Just one question … for Michael Graff, on the death of Earl Badu

Tag Archives: why’s this so good?

Just one question … for Michael Graff, on the death of Earl Badu

March 28, 2013 – 8:26 am

Big buzz earlier this month when Michael Graff‘s story on the suicide of former University of Maryland basketball walk-on Earl Badu hit SB Nation‘s longform wing: You know the wish can’t come true, but people say it all the time to hide their own fears, so you’ll open with it, too: You wish he could just be happy. [...]

By Michael Kruse | Posted in just one question | Also tagged Alan Huffman, Carol Smith, Gene Weingarten, Glenn Stout, Lane DeGregory, Michael Graff, Our State magazine, SB Nation, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Best American Sports Writing, The Washington Post, why's this so good? | Comments (0)

“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 [...]

By Justin Ellis | Posted in why's this so good? | Also tagged Alexis Madrigal, ESPN, Justin Ellis, longreads, Ralph Wiley, Sports Illustrated, why's this so good? | Comments (2)

The Go-Gos and the future of narrative nonfiction (or why you won’t see any new posts here for a bit)

August 29, 2011 – 10:00 am

It’s that time of year, where we take a break for a few days from the world of nonfiction storytelling to hit the beach, eat funnel cakes and read really bad fiction. (No way are we going to let a little hurricane interfere with anything as important as a vacation.) If you’re longing for Storyboard [...]

By Andrea Pitzer | Posted in narrative news | Also tagged editors' roundtable, why's this so good? | Comments (0)

“Why’s This So Good?” No. 9: Herbert Muschamp builds a metaphor

August 23, 2011 – 11:41 am

What do Silly Putty, Superman and Marilyn Monroe have to do with architecture? Short answer: Nothing. Long answer: Herbert Muschamp. In 1997, New York Times architecture critic Muschamp traveled to a then little-known industrial city in northern Spain to see a building. He came back with a 5,000-word swoon, which ended up on the cover [...]

By Alexandra Lange | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged Alexandra Lange, Design Observer, Herbert Muschamp, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Goldberger, The New York Times Magazine, why's this so good? | Comments (1)

“Why’s this so good?” No. 7: Barry Siegel and the weight of consequences

August 9, 2011 – 11:10 am

On a bright autumn morning, a man drives into the wilderness of the Utah mountains. As he arrives, the sun glows, the clouds float, the aspens glimmer in a passing breeze, “humming a faint prayer.” In the front seat of his pickup, the man’s toddler son dozes happily in the warm light. A golden moment, [...]

By Deborah Blum | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged Barry Siegel, Deborah Blum, Los Angeles Times, Pulitzer Prize, why's this so good? | Comments (1)

“Why’s this so good?” No. 6:
Alma Guillermoprieto’s view on Bogota

August 3, 2011 – 11:58 am

I first read “Letter from Bogota” in a Latin American History class in college. About 50 kids were crammed into an old, long lecture hall, the kind you see in movies about blue bloods and their schools: the dark wood floors, the lead-paned windows and the reading nook tucked into the back wall – the one that’s [...]

By Jay Caspian Kang | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged Alma Guillermoprieto, Jack Kerouac, Jay Caspian Kang, Robert Lowell, The New Yorker, why's this so good? | Comments (2)

“Why’s this so good?” No. 5: Raymond Chandler sticks it to Hollywood

July 27, 2011 – 11:08 am

We tend now to think of Hollywood’s hackneyed, would-be blockbusters as a new phenomenon, one borne of desperation, unprecedented cynicism and the rise of narrative television. But Raymond Chandler’s wonderful 1945 essay-screed “Writers in Hollywood” reminds us that the motion picture industry was, by and large, as uninspired and ridiculous 65 years ago as it is [...]

By Maud Newton | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged Ayelet Waldman, George Pelacanos, H. L. Mencken, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Ames, Kurt Vonnegut, Marilynne Robinson, Mark Twain, Maud Newton, Michael Chabon, Raymond Chandler, Richard Dawkins, Richard Price, Salman Rushdie, Sam Lipsyte, Sloane Crosley, The Atlantic, why's this so good? | Comments (8)

“Why’s this so good?” No. 4: W.C. Heinz on Air Lift, son of Bold Venture

July 19, 2011 – 9:16 am

On a rainy afternoon in 1949, W.C. Heinz watched a beautiful young horse break its leg and then get shot in the head. And then he sat down and wrote about it for the readers of the New York Sun, ordinary men and women, commuters and shoeshine kids. More than 60 years after it was [...]

By Chris Jones | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged Chris Jones, Esquire, New York Sun, W.C. Heinz, why's this so good? | Comments (12)

“Why’s this so good?” – a collaboration on the magic of long-form stories

June 24, 2011 – 9:20 am

We’re excited to announce a new feature that we’ll be rolling out next week on Nieman Storyboard. “Why’s This So Good?” will explore what makes classic narrative nonfiction stories worth reading. Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, recently popped out with a suggestion on Twitter that the awesome catalogue of narrative that is [...]

By Andrea Pitzer | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged 5280 Magazine, Alexis Madrigal, Andrea Pitzer, longreads, Mark Armstrong, Max Potter, The New Yorker, Truman Capote, why's this so good? | Comments (3)

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