Who can say what causes a reader to pause, in one moment, a line or passage she might zoom through at other times? Some sudden notice of the melody of language? Some echo of a forgotten conversation? For me, … Read more
After 40-some years of practicing journalism, I decided there was much I still had to learn about the craft. So I became a teacher. Any of you who have gone from reporting and writing to talking about reporting and … Read more
Kobe Bryant had enough championship rings for a fist, a mural bearing his image on Melrose Avenue and a history that echoes loudly in the #MeToo era. The former Lakers star’s shocking death with eight others in a helicopter … Read more
I’ve studied an Indian classical dance form known as Bharatanatyam on and off since I was five. Bharatanatyam, like writing, has its own syntax: a combination of hand gestures, specific sequences of steps, and so … Read more
Somewhere in the early pages of “Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process,” John McPhee gives a nod to daily news reporters. The author and New Yorker writer was explaining his own, wildly successful writing … Read more
“Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. Black Americans fought to make them true. Without this struggle, America would have no democracy at all.” So begins Nikole Hannah-Jones’s stunning and provocative essay that … Read more
Every journalist has an unfinished novel or a screenplay tucked in their desk drawer or hard drive. Of course, that’s not true in every case, but there’s no doubt a long tradition exists of nonfiction writers who are drawn … Read more
It’s an all-too-familiar story. Another American factory closes, the latest in a long line in the last three decades that has seen American manufacturing devastated by foreign competition. This time it was the giant General … Read more
Reporters of a certain place and time — Eugene, Oregon, in the 1970s — loved to tell stories about how they were hired. At the time, the Eugene Register-Guard was considered one of the finest small-city newspapers in the … Read more
Come the close of any calendar year, and look-back pieces are as common as failed New Year resolutions. At the close of a decade — even more. So when one rises out of the scrum and provides both something … Read more