few days ago, I caught a Lyft to Sea-Tac Airport from my home in Seattle. The driver was originally from Eritrea, as are many of the taxi and share drivers I meet here. He told me he emigrated to the U.S. in 1991, when he was in his early 20s. When I mentioned that I […] | Continue reading
h, those pesky numbers. Not, we journalists are often told, our strong suit. Or to cite the old and very lame joke: “Jourmalists don’t do math.” And yet we must, especially in an era in which numbers often drive the news: Public polls, political races, economic indicators — which … | Continue reading
ow’s this for a story? At the start of a bloody war that shocked the world, a ship braved Antarctic ice and sailors risked their lives, returning with a tale for the ages. That’s the story of Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance a century ago — but it’s also what happened when a … | Continue reading
o surprise that the infamous slap during the March 27 Oscars was the talk of the press the next day, and the day after, and so many of the days that followed. No real surprise that someone in he media, within moments, had labeled it the Slap Heard ‘Round the World. Clever? Maybe. … | Continue reading
eteran U.S. newspaper journalist Brian Bonner has given the last 14 years of his career to Ukraine. As the longtime editor of the Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper in the country’s capital, he directed a staff of reporters who wrote about everything from Kyiv’s nightlife a … | Continue reading
y neighbors across the street always have a banner flying from their porch. Sometimes they are holiday related, but mostly the colors of various sports teams. Many are international, thanks to their son’s passion for soccer. A few days ago they put up a Ukrainian flag. Now, as th … | Continue reading
ach time I lived in China, for a stretch in 2008 and again in 2015, I felt alone and disconnected. I grew up in Boston, but am Chinese by blood. I shared the same skin, eyes and hair color as the masses in China. I celebrated the Lunar New Year and shared some central values, […] | Continue reading
Of the too-many horror stories coming out of Ukraine, I find myself stopped when I read yet another about a family that fled with nothing of their settled lives. Grab a jacket, the children, the dog, your passports, whatever cash you have, maybe a loaf of bread.(niemanstoryboard. … | Continue reading
f the too-many horror stories coming out of Ukraine, I find myself stopped when I read yet another about a family that fled with nothing of their settled lives. Grab a jacket, the children, the dog, your passports, whatever cash you have, maybe a loaf of bread. There is no time t … | Continue reading
im Morris was four decades into a successful investigative journalism career spotlighting environmental and labor issues. His storytelling — in newspapers, magazines and broadcast — was intimate and girded with data. He had more than 80 awards to his name, including the George Po … | Continue reading
t’s not fair — and perhaps dangerous — to watch the Hollywood version of war. The good guys always win — or at least used to until Hollywood got a little messier and the lines between good guy and bad got blurred. Even then, as with any story of war, the narrative is framed by [… … | Continue reading
f you’ve never judged a journalism contest, I urge you to raise your hand. The work can be blistering: Dozens of stories to read, tight delivery deadlines, clumsy online access. But the profession needs your service. And it is an unparalleled education in craft and mission. A fri … | Continue reading
or most of my life, feedback made me anxious. I was in third grade when my mom came home from a parent-teacher conference with this pronouncement. “Your teacher said your math skills need improvement, so I’m going to find you a tutor.” For countless Saturday evenings after that, … | Continue reading
op shop PIOs typically don’t ruminate on life in a small city or make jokes at their own expense. At least, not on social media. But since 2014, Tim Cotton — a lieutenant with the police department in Bangor, Maine (pop. 32,000) — has used the agency’s Facebook page for much more … | Continue reading
As information passes through cyberspace, the concerned citizen must work to find what can be trusted. | Continue reading
"Bewilderment," the most recent novel by Pulitzer-winner Richard Powers, has additional meanings in light of the invasion of Ukraine. | Continue reading
Many Ukrainian journalists stay in their homeland to fight the Russian invasion and get their stories to the world. | Continue reading
How Nellie Bly and a sisterhood of crusading journalists foreshadowed today's narrative nonfiction. | Continue reading
Newspaperman-turned-author Bryan Denson shares how he organizes his notes and timelines to propose and write books. | Continue reading
Former investigative and narrative newspaper reporter Bryan Denson outlines how he went from rejection to multiple book contracts. | Continue reading
Essays by Chuck Haga in the Grand Forks Herald and Frank Bruni in The New York Times peel layers of inattention to better listening. | Continue reading
The NPR reporter honored a personal "no-knock" rule, but gained access to personal stories about the loss of a wildlands firefighting crew. | Continue reading
The author and podcaster learned took tools from improv comedy to his unexpected radio call-in show and podcast. | Continue reading
A former CNN reporter returned to Haiti several times in the wake of the 2010 earthquake to follow the recovery story of a survivor. | Continue reading
AP reporter Tim Sullivan found a small town on the Minnesota prairie to explore the political chasms exposed by COVID. | Continue reading
The CNN reporter made time and space for a daughter and son to talk about their father's death in hopes of helping others. | Continue reading
A top Danish journalist uses a one-word theme and color-coded Post-its to find the path through complex stories. | Continue reading
arlier this month, we posted a short “One Great Moment” piece on a dazzling line of dialog from the new-this-season Netflix movie “A Boy Called Christmas.” Dame Maggie Smith is telling three fidgety children a story. When they want to know why they have to listen, she gently scol … | Continue reading
In a year tracking victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, a CNN reporter gained insights about taking care of story subjects and himself. | Continue reading
An irreverent obit defies the stiff conventions of traditional death notices to match an irreverent life. | Continue reading
Narrative editor and teacher Jan Winburn led a class at the University of Montana to prepare students for the challenges of covering trauma.. | Continue reading
A TV screen crawl prompted a question that Jacob Stern chased for two years to provide a ringside seat to the chilly humanity of boxing.. | Continue reading
A writer and editor re-reads Joan Didion to track her career-long evolution from wobbly to wicked-good. | Continue reading
A charter member and former executive director of IRE remembers lessons from Didion's probe of the 1989 Central Park jogger case. | Continue reading
Howard guided writers at The Los Angeles Times, Reuters and Nieman Storyboard. She died this week, at 59, of cancer. | Continue reading
A New Yorker contributor lived under the Pacific Northwest "heat dome," and then found human and science stories to show its toll. | Continue reading
f this seems dated (it’s inspired by a Christmas movie, after all), consider this: The best of stories are, or should be, universal and timeless. And thus a breath-catching moment early in the recent season’s Netflix movie, “A Boy Called Christmas.” I’ve tucked it in my teaching … | Continue reading
ntold stories remain one of journalism’s and society’s starkest gaps. The plight of the mentally ill and homeless, the Sisyphean struggles of the working poor, ingrained prejudice against minorities in the workplace, child poverty and hunger — those subjects make it into public … | Continue reading
How The Washington Post drew on classic narrative techniques and new transparency tools to revisit the assault on the U.S. Capitol. | Continue reading
Check out the completely unscientific and totally discretionary Storyboard Editor's Choice Awards for 2021. | Continue reading
A matrix of page views and time-on-site highlight an eclectic mix of "Community's Choice Awards" for the last year | Continue reading
Some meditation while shoveling snow brings awareness of miracles, from seasonal acts of kindness to the daily newspaper. | Continue reading
A mother and marketing director is inspired by a lake, a children's book and the time of year to write an Ode to Winter Solstice. | Continue reading
In Louise Erdrich's new novel, "The Sentence," she captures the divides of race and class exposed by COVID and police brutality. | Continue reading
Author and writing coach Chip Scanlan shares what he learned when he bypassed the book agents and publishing houses and self-publish. | Continue reading
The death of writing coach Don Fry provides a chance to consider the ripples that one special teacher sends out into the world. | Continue reading
Pulitzer-winner Andrea Elliott of The New York Times navigated source relationships and ethics for eight years to tell Dasani's story. | Continue reading
A new documentary about one intense month in 1969 of the Beatles making an album shows the creative power of daring to ask: "What if?" | Continue reading