Wisconsin writer and teacher Tamera Dean relies on self-knowledge and lots of revision to create a journey through nature and time. | Continue reading
A deft twist of language turns a cliché into a fresh and apt descriptive phrase. | Continue reading
A successful stage director and actor found the tools he needed to answer a call to write in his own voice. | Continue reading
Author and New Yorker writer Peter Hessler uses his personal experiences to see past politics to the human story. | Continue reading
How a veteran newspaper editor was reminded of the craft of story work by directing a community play. | Continue reading
Simile and metaphor are powerful tools to help readers see familiar things in new ways, and exotic things through the familiar. | Continue reading
An effective story pitch needs to be built around a central idea or driving question, with relevance and fit to the publication being pitched. | Continue reading
Mitchell S. Jackson won both Pulitzer and National Magazine awards for his story, which dared to push the boundaries of voice and intimacy. | Continue reading
A sampling of recent journalism awards and announcements lets us look back into the Storyboard archives for inspiration. | Continue reading
An evolving society requires journalism that evolves along with it — from sourcing to interview techniques to style guides. | Continue reading
Transgender activist and former journalist Bethany Grace Howe offers hard-earned advice on how to, and not to, cover trans issues. | Continue reading
Samantha Schmidt of The Washington Post follows a girl who was finding her personal and political voice as COVID and politicians threatened it. | Continue reading
Lane DeGregory's 2002 profile of a transgender woman is a study in source relationships, immersion reporting and empathy. | Continue reading
A former educational policy advisor wanted to know more about the place she had moved with her family, so turned her curiosity into a book. | Continue reading
A profile of Nicholas Britell, who wrote music for "The Underground Railroad," "Succession," and more hot films, takes us into his creative process, | Continue reading
Award-winning author Jessica Goudeau says this is a century of displacement, and stories must be reported in fresh, respectful ways. | Continue reading
Los Angeles Times editor Steve Padilla offers tips on how to make your writing sing, and asks you to hum along. | Continue reading
Journalist John N. Maclean writes a non-memoir memoir that serves as the true backstory to his father's epic novella, "A River Runs Through It." | Continue reading
The annotation of a transcript from the This American Life episode "Anatomy of Doubt" shows how stories can be structured and paced for audio. | Continue reading
Investigative reporters from ProPublica and the Marshall Project teamed with This American Life for multiple tellings of the same story. | Continue reading
Memorial Day events and memories can inspire story ideas that are current and creative. | Continue reading
How to make your story pitch as interesting as the idea you plan to write. | Continue reading
Anniversaries of big story events can spark memories which can remind you of tools and techniques you own in your career. | Continue reading
The tight, opening paragraph of a Dennis Lehane novel provides a profile of place, a foreshadow and an introduction to a main character. | Continue reading
Ava Kofman of ProPublica blended contextual and records reporting with intimate interviews and observation for a narrative about ambulance medics. | Continue reading
If you want to call the muse of artful writing, grab a few tools and get to work. | Continue reading
To end the "Field Testing" video series, Alexander Trowbridge grabbed a clamp and a camera to record a few final thoughts. | Continue reading
A professional freelance journalist watches her daughter start a neigbhborhood newspaper, and comes away with needed reminders. | Continue reading
For Episode 4 of "Field Testing," independent video journalist Alexander Trowbridge spent a night in a barn loft with minimal equipment. | Continue reading
An explanatory story about a complex matrix of environmental and economic issues is helped by use of narrative moments. | Continue reading
Lizzie Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle moved from city hall scoops to wildfire news and narratives and now to The Washington Post. | Continue reading
Filming yourself. While making "Field Testing," it’s something Alexander Trowbridge had to think about quite a bit. Here are his pro tips. | Continue reading
The PBS documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, which explores the complexity of Ernest Hemingway, sparked discussion of his work's legacy. | Continue reading
In episode 2 of Field Testing, Alexander Trowbridge shows how drones can help add context and make your visual journalism more compelling. | Continue reading
Alexander Trowbridge, a 2020 Nieman Fellow, retreated to a farm to learn how journalists can tell compelling visual stories in "Field Testing." | Continue reading
Washington Post court reporter Robert Barnes employs a bit of sass to guide readers into a serious story about students' speech rights. | Continue reading
An editor and writing coach is handed a humble reminder that it's easy to give advice, and very hard to take it. | Continue reading
After 40 years as an editor and professor, a veteran newsman goes backs to his writing roots, and dares to find a personal voice. | Continue reading
Washington Post national reporter Jose A. Del Real profiles one family torn by conflicting beliefs in information and politics. | Continue reading
The high school journalist in Oregon who spent last summer covering racial justice demonstrations continues to put public affairs news first. | Continue reading
A brief reflection on fundamental questions that challenge journalism at its core, and are about more than the broken business model. | Continue reading
Resistance to the COVID vaccine carries echoes of past stories. A version of this first ran as a Nieman Storyboard newsletter. | Continue reading
Ibram X. Kendi and Jelani Cobb discuss the power and dangers of so-called "objectivity" in journalistic and historic narratives. | Continue reading
One of America's most prestigious journalism awards is a mirror to our times and an homage to nonfiction that is both relevant and elegant. | Continue reading
At a BU Power of Narrative keynote, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold touted lists, spreadsheets and persistence. | Continue reading
A breakout session at BU's The Power of Narrative conference focuses on navigating the tricky business of a freelance writing career. | Continue reading
The founder of the Power of Narrative conference at Boston University talks about the range of voices in nonfiction writing. | Continue reading
Sports media hall-of-famer Dave Kindred "retired" to the Midwest and watching high school basketball, but couldn't stop writing. | Continue reading