Archive
Writing once featured on the original Gangrey blog.
Up ahead, on your left, Gangrey, The Podcast. Huge thanks to Matt Tullis and Glenn Battishill for pulling this together. Follow @gangreypodcast.
If you've ever been part of a big media descent upon a small town, you know that awkward feeling of trying to get the story while also trying to not be an asshole. It's rare in my…
Jim Dwyer: NEWTOWN, Conn. — A few minutes before 10 Friday morning, Michelle Urbina was speaking with a customer at the small bank branch that she manages in Bethel, Conn., when he…
Susan Taylor Martin, Feb. 11, 2001: He lives alone in the big city. Weekday mornings, between 9 and 9:30, he steps out of Apt. 3A and rides the elevator down to the lobby. Walks ac…
Margalit Fox: It was born on a beach six decades ago, the product of a pressing need, an intellectual spark and the sweep of a young man's fingers through the sand. The result ador…
Eli Saslow: NEWTOWN, Conn. — The day began, like all days at Sandy Hook Elementary, with the morning ritual of taking attendance. Yellow buses rolled into the parking lot just befo…
An obtituary for James Mattioli, 6 3/4, who died on Friday at Sandy Hook. Thanks to Justin for passing it on.
Susan Carroll (subscription required): PIEDRAS BLANCAS, Guatemala – Leonel Tipaz de León stretched out on the wood-framed bed in his parents' tiny adobe home, its peeling, aqua shu…
From Daniel Boone to Dirty Harry, America's Fascination with Firearms Henry Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer April 19, 1989 STYLE, PAGE D1 The Great American Gun Mystique: We…
Part 3, from Kelley: The surgeon sewed our baby shut. The neonatologist rose from her prayer rug. Then a nurse returned our tiny daughter to the quiet of her incubator, and we made…
A hilarious clip from the Akron Beacon-Journal, February 1, 1999, with two names you might recognize: BRAINWASHED & BLURRY FOR NEARLY 12 HOURS, IT WAS ENDLESS HYPE, EXCESSES AND, O…
Anne Hull over the weekend in the Washington Post: Week after week, the mailman climbed the steep hill of Shenango Street to the house with the busted porch steps. "Dear Miss Rouzz…
Part Two, from Kelley Benham: Bent double, I shuffled down a winding corridor, trying to find my baby. Somewhere in this place my new daughter lay alone in a neonatal intensive car…
Part 1 of 3. Kelley Benham: Our baby came swirling into view in black and white, week after week, in the grainy wedge on the ultrasound monitor. First a dark featureless pool, then…
Gene Weingarten: WILMINGTON, N.C. — They are old men now, the doctor and the lawyer, ancient adversaries confronting each other one last time. The doctor shuffles into the courtroo…
Christine Peterson: Maggie bowed her head, covered by a leather hood. Her talons pulsed open and closed with hundreds of pounds of pressure on the perch in the back of Scott Simpso…
Thanks to Doyle for passing this along. Lauren Smiley: On Feb. 15, Thomas Bruso's already unpredictable life took an abrupt detour. It was the day he ceased being Thomas Bruso and…
Today I came across a hidden gem of a story, an unbylined piece that ran on page 6A of The Anniston Star in Alabama on October 9, 1972. I present it here, in its entirety, until th…
From the mailbag: I was wondering if you could suggest city hall reporters with strong writing chops. Headed there soon and I love narrative-style writing, and I'm fearful that I'l…
Craig Pittman: North of Gainesville, a church camp once attracted thousands of visitors because it was built around the gushing waters of Hornsby Springs. Then the spring stopped f…
T Lake: 1 A hailstorm in Colorado, summer 1993. A mother and her son were riding bicycles along the edge of Horseshoe Lake, in the town of Loveland. They were three miles from home…
So much good in here. Dan Barry: There was a time; admit it. There was a time when, if given a choice between a warm pastry fresh from a baker's oven and an ageless package of Ring…
Two Parts. Molly Hennessey-Fiske: After the nightmares started, Davien Graham avoided his bicycle. In his dreams, he pedaled his silver BMX bike through his neighborhood, heard gun…
Dave Tarrant (paywall): PELHAM – The 50-year-old tree growing near Catherine Porter's front porch sags from the weight of pecans the size of golf balls. The clusters of green husks…
Mailbag: The Winston-Salem Journal laid off its publisher, its multimedia editor and its arts reporter yesterday. The multimedia editor, Michelle Johnson — a talented woman with a…
Linda Wertheimer interviews Ben Montgomery on NPR's Morning Edition. Listen here.
A milestone for our friend Justin Heckert. The cover story in the latest New York Times Magazine: The girl who feels no pain was in the kitchen, stirring ramen noodles, when the sp…
A friend of Gangrey asked me to pass this along: The Midland Reporter-Telegram, a Hearst Corp. daily newspaper, is needing a talented, energetic reporter to cover local government…
Jerry Mitchell: Felix Vail has a habit of disappearing — and so do some women he's known. Growing up on a dairy farm in the community of Montpelier in northeast Mississippi, he som…
On Veterans' Day, buy this Byliner Original by the veteran Brian Mockenhaupt: The bullet smacked the dirt between Tom and Ian, inches from their feet, as they stepped out of the co…
Ben in today's Tampa Bay Times: The young man stood at the front of Bus C, his ribs rising and falling with each breath. Before him stood about 20 members of one of the best marchi…
In the Washington Post Magazine: Just outside Arlington National Cemetery, an Army social worker dug into his pocket and pulled out a smooth rock onto which he had written a single…
Dan Zak: And on your right you'll notice the American voter (homo electus) in his natural habitat, a school gymnasium. Please do not approach the voter. He should not be startled w…
Great little story from our pal Jon Gold, via his Facebook: Had one of the most poignant experiences of my life last night. Riding home from the Clippers game on the Metro, I pulle…
In the darkness, a New Yorker stands up for his neighborhood: NEW YORK — Before the storm, it would have been a familiar setting here in lower Manhattan: a man behind the counter,…
Marjorie Williams, 2004: Every other day of the year, any mother knows that glitter is the work of Satan, but last Sunday it lit her skin with a dew of every color.
Jay Price: Four pagers went off simultaneously early Monday, and the on-duty helicopter crew pulled themselves from their warm bunks at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City. It w…
I posted Part I below, but go read Part II and Part III of Alex Zayas' investigation into Florida group homes.
Mike Wilson: TAMPA — A dark-haired woman pushing a double stroller appeared at Airside E security Saturday morning nearly out of breath. Two tiny girls reclined in the stroller. A…
John Jeremiah Sullivan: About a month ago, editors from this magazine, which employs me, and from which I am therefore loath to turn down assignments even when they are horrifying,…
Strong, important investigative work from Alexandra Zayas. Part I: They shaved him bald that first morning in 2008, put him in an orange jumpsuit and made him exercise past dark. T…
Halloween Edition By Henry Allen Washington Post April 3, 1983 Satan? You gotta be kidding. Didn't science fix that superstitious wagon for good? Didn't Valium and birth-control…
I continue to be surprised and delighted by the upstart This Land Press, and I'm glad they're getting attention. This project — it's more than that at this point — gives me great h…
A couple of new ones you might want to check out: The Next Wave, edited by Walt Harrington and Mike Sager. Next Wave is fascinating and beautiful reading for enthusiasts and studen…
Matt Tullis: Brian Simmons does not like the clay at this year's World Horseshoe Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn. It's powdery, slippery. Even the non-horseshoe pitchers can tell thi…
Nigel Duara: PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Again and again, decade after decade, an array of authorities — police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and local Boy Scout leaders among them — quie…
Wanted to make sure you caught this, from Mark Armstrong: By now you've probably seen our Longreads Member Exclusives—a mix of outstanding magazine stories and book excerpts you ca…
Dan Barry: ELYRIA, Ohio Another day begins with a sound softer than a finger-snap, in an Ohio place called Elyria. In the central square of this small city, the gushing water fount…
Brandon Sneed: JUST BEFORE SUNRISE, Captain Iván Castro feels his way across his hotel room to the bathroom sink. He stands before the mirror, his left eye wandering up and to the…
The Chattanooga Times Free Press is looking for a county government reporter who can look past the agendas and the meetings to find the real stories that affect people's lives. The…
The Nobel Prize news today reminds us of this great 2007 series from Mark Johnson, about Shinya Yamanaka and the race to reset the cellular clock. Targeting the Good Cell James Tho…
Eli Saslow: He had always managed to find optimism in even the worst circumstances, and here was another chance: a heat advisory, 98 degrees and rising at 11 a.m., the hottest day…
Finkel: "They're not just endorsing my work in particular but a type of journalism. I like to think this is an endorsement of long-form journalism, in which you stay long enough to…
Alex Prewitt: LOWELL — He stepped to the edge to die. Weathered hands gripped the rusted railing of Lowell's Ouelette Bridge, beckoned by the rushing river current. Brick warehouse…
Yes, it's true. Maybe, even as newspapers contract, the people who know what makes a great story will find a way to keep getting paid for their work.
Michael J. Mooney: So much of Bountygate boils down to evidence. This is the biggest scandal in the history of the NFL, and when the initial punishments came down—long suspensions…
Thanks to our buddy Erik Hahmann (@ehahmann) for this Q and A with the lovely and talented Chris Jones. You've written a number of profiles in your career, perhaps most famously Ro…
Chris Jones: On or about March 15 of this year, Teller — the smaller, quieter half of the magicians Penn & Teller — says he received an e-mail from a friend in New York. In that e-…
Kruse: Nanci Donnellan, better known as the Fabulous Sports Babe, walked slowly one afternoon this past April to a table at a gelato shop on Beach Drive in St. Petersburg. She wore…
Rukmini Callimachi: HAWKANTAKI, Niger — Each day before the reaping, the 11-year-old girl walked between the stunted stalks of millet with a sense of mounting dread. In a normal ye…
Joe Kovac Jr.: When cockroaches by the dozen started showing up at the front doors of the Fountain Temple AME Church on Sunday mornings, folks in the 35-member congregation weren't…
Michael Lewis: Even after his parachute opened, Tyler Stark sensed he was coming down too fast. The last thing he'd heard was the pilot saying, "Bailout! Bailout! Bail—" Before th…
Kalani Simpson: When Nicolette Maroulis first came to, she thought she was dead. They were giving her last rites. The priest hadn't acknowledged that she had woken up, and, so, lyi…
Kruse: JANESVILLE, Wis. — The Labor Day parade here in Paul Ryan's hometown started with a police siren. It moved slowly down Milwaukee Street, followed by clowns, a green-fatigued…
Erin Sullivan: Charlie Caraher was on the 68th floor of the World Trade Center, starting his day as a computer programmer for Morgan Stanley, when the first plane hit the other tow…
Jim Schoettler: POMONA PARK — Jacob Mullins and his dad dashed from their front door as gunshots erupted across the narrow road in this Putnam County hamlet. They stopped at the ed…
David Casstevens: BENBROOK — A plastic flyswatter hangs on one wall. Used golf balls, priced 50 cents each, sit in a wire basket on the countertop alongside a display of Cracker Ja…
J schools aren't changing quickly enough, writes Eric Newton: Representatives from six foundations this summer wrote to the presidents at nearly 500 colleges in the United States,…
Jeremy Fugleberg: LUSK — Tom Bleming knows he's lost before he bites down into his first slice of pizza. He wolfs down the piece anyway. It's early on election night, but it's not…
Dear Wikipedia, I am Philip Roth. I had reason recently to read for the first time the Wikipedia entry discussing my novel "The Human Stain." The entry contains a serious misstatem…
Full title of this story: "IF YOU DON'T KEEP GOING, I WILL LET YOU FALL OVER THE EDGE AND DIE." It's Michael Rubino: Indiana's most notorious grandfather wants you to know he's sor…
I've been corresponding lately with a talented young Missouri Tiger named Seth Boster (class of 2016). He could use some editing. Well, Tiger Nation — Justin, Tony, Seth, Wright, a…
KVV: On a hot summer evening, when you drive the stretch of highway that snakes its way through water tower towns and the green and golden fields of farmland that make up the lands…
Where's Ben? In New Orleans, waiting for the storm: About a dozen homeless men hung out under a pavilion as rain sputtered and a firm wind blew.
You'll want to read this one. Beautiful piece of work from Corpus Christi. Mark Collette: CORPUS CHRISTI — Phil Rosenstein prescribed himself the only medicine he can fathom for a…
Big writing from Michael Browning, 20 years ago: There is simply too much sky. A fortnight after the attack of Hurricane Andrew, the southern arc of Florida lies luminous and shado…
Wright Thompson reports to the marrow: HAARLEM, The Netherlands — Everything that would destroy them had already been set in motion when Gregory and Jason Halman squeezed into the…
Anonymous observation from a "Junior Member" at SportsJournalists.com: "Spending too much time with that Gangrey crowd will give one an ego as fat as theirs." Govern yourselves acc…
C.J. Chivers: TAL RIFAAT, Syria — Abdul Hakim Yasin, the commander of a Syrian antigovernment fighting group, lurched his pickup truck to a stop inside the captured residential com…
Rukmini Callimachi: SAKABAL, Niger – In a part of the world where the worth of a man is measured by his animals, Tuareg nomad Soumaila Wantala has come to this market to do the unt…
Peter Jamison: LARGO — Arnie is a dour 10-year-old beagle known for his eccentricities, not the least of which is a propensity to eat hundreds of dollars in cash. Seven years ago,…
Our friend, Michael Brick, has a new book out today. It's a great, important read. Dana Goldstein: Brick has done his homework on the history of American education, and he accurate…
What: RNC J-Party. When: Tuesday, August 28, after you've filed. Where: The South Deck at San Carlos Tavern, 6416 North Florida Ave., Tampa (Four miles north of downtown Tampa on…
Bill Stevens: NEW PORT RICHEY — Tom Dobies dreaded this day. He had comforted thousands of grieving families in 34 years as a mortician, but nothing could ease the burning in his t…
Great lede: Margalit Fox: Helen Gurley Brown, who as the author of "Sex and the Single Girl" shocked early-1960s America with the news that unmarried women not only had sex but tho…
If you're looking, consider this one: We're looking for a couple of ambitious, hard-working journalists to join our award- winning team in Spokane, Wash. We have TWO full-time open…
Says Justin Heckert (and confirms Tom Junod): "Required reading for newly hired ATLmag writers. And for ALL writers." Pat Conroy: Divorce has many witnesses, many victims. It is a…
Julia O'Malley: Bill "Guillermo" Martinez arrived at my door for the first time looking like a person who'd recently disembarked a cruise ship. He had on a denim shirt, sweater ves…
Wow. Wow. Wow. Has anyone else read Mark Singer's New York piece on Kip Litton, the mystery marathoner? Just finished it today and it's incredible. Apparently not online except in…
David Simon: To remember him as we met him, twenty years ago, is to know everything that was lost, everything that never happened to a boy who could surprise you with his charm and…
Wright: Before you join Urban Meyer, who is walking toward the exit of the Ohio State football office, there's a scar you need to see. A few years ago in Gainesville, his middle ch…
What's the best Olympics-related story you've read this year? What's the best Olympics-related story you've ever read? Let's have a showdown. Post your favorite story (even if you…
Thought this was a little gem buried in the metro section. Jodie Tillman: TAMPA — The call to police Monday came from inside the Ritz Ybor, the scene of a day-long death-metal band…
Alan Feuer: Jake LaMotta was standing in his kitchen on the East Side of Manhattan the other day, wedged in front of his refrigerator, puffing on a Marlboro in the dark. He was blo…
Robert Sanchez: On a cool January night, more than a dozen preteen girls crowded a staircase above a hallway that led to the Olympic-size pool inside the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas S…
David Montero: Aurora, Colo. » Each morning for the past few days, Austin Hogan has carefully pulled out his clarinet, put in a reed and played music in the hospital room. His audi…
Robert Samuels: Usaam Mukwaya realized his American dream at a bar that reeked of sweat and stale beer, where a hunk of a bartender doled out Heinekens and whiskey sours. Men dance…
Ben Montgomery: The sun beat hot and the humidity hung like plastic wrap. The blisters on my heels and toes had grown so fat it felt like I was stepping on cherries. I'd been on th…
The incredible story of why the Toronto Star assigned 15 reporters to write an obit. (thanks, Nigel)
Brady Dennis: AURORA, Colo. — In the darkness of Theater 9, smoke began to rise. Stephen Barton saw flashes and heard loud pops coming from near a front exit. Fireworks, he thought…
Had the privilege of being in the same building as Mark this past weekend at Mayborn. Take a look at this wonderful story: Mark Sundeen: VERN AND DONELLE KERSEY aren't the type of…
"I wish that I was a really good narrative writer. If I had one dream, it would be that. But I'm not. So I have to sort of figure out what to do on the edges." — Tom Junod, in Mayb…
Patrick Hruby: On the day he took his own life, Austin Trenum ate cheesecake. He was 17. He loved cheesecake. He loved the Beastie Boys, too, and SpongeBob Squarepants and the sill…
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you blankets made of newspaper! (thanks, Janine)
Eloquently posed by Peter Simek: Did a seemingly benign panel on city and regional magazines suddenly turn into a semi-lynching of the editors of Our State? Did one Pulitzer Prize…
Eli Saslow: AURORA, COLO. — The movie house is a mystical place, a secular shrine people visit to leave reality behind. Not a place where a man has to pile on top of his wife of tw…
Dugan Arnett: COLUMBIA — On a lazy morning not long ago, not far from where a sports editor was once beaten and strangled to death, the father of a convicted murderer was wrapping…
Chapter 6 – AFTER VICTORIA'S DEATH (Post scriptum six months after Chapter 5) Over Christmas 2010 Berlingske told the story of the sick, orphaned girl Victoria and a Danish woman,…
Lane Degregory: GULFPORT When the bruised sky became black and the winds whipped up to 50 mph and waves began breaking across the side of his sailboat, John "Captain Jay" Burki dec…
Chapter 5: A CHANCE FOR VICTORIA In September 2011 Cecilie M. Hansen saw a photo in Berlingske of a seriously ill girl in Nepal. Victoria, just 20 months old, was born with water o…
Tim Botos: ALLIANCE — Sorry Floyd Mayweather, the toughest pound-for-pound fighter in the country might be Trenton Ball. He lives inside an apartment on Lakeview Avenue. He sleeps…
Via Liddy Lake and NPR's health blog, the funniest pictures you'll see all week. Reporters literally sprinting with their copies of the Supreme Court's healthcare decision. Wish I'…
From Mark Johnson: I've been rereading Angels & Demons by Tom French. I know many gangreyers are familiar with the story, maybe the finest newspaper narrative ever. I was stopped c…
This is like reading about some forgotten pocket of America. Here's Doyle Murphy covering a gang trial: WHITE PLAINS — John "Tarzan" Maldonado spent his final hours in what he must…
Mike Mooney: When Bill Fong approaches the lane, 15-pound bowling ball in hand, he tries not to breathe. He tries not to think about not breathing. He wants his body to perform a s…
Dan Stockman: They were such an integral part of our existence that it was hard to imagine life without them. It's even harder to imagine now how they disappeared.
To follow up on Ben's excellent post, here's a picture of my first newsroom, at The Press-Sentinel, in Jesup, Georgia, circa 2001. I'm on the right, covering my face, exhausted. Th…
Caitlin Johnston: MANCHESTER, Tenn. Ukulele and smoke filled the heavy air of the Tennessee hotel room. For $58, the members of the Applebutter Express had themselves two beds with…
Joan Garrett: It's Sunday morning, and Matt Nevels is at home again. From his front yard, he almost can see the white steeple of Red Bank Baptist Church. Less than a mile down the…
Tony Rehagen: I don't read manuals. But when my wife was pregnant last year with our first child, she studied every so-you're-expecting book she could find. I scanned the sections…
Jordy Byrd: Even inside her Spokane Valley home, with a security camera turned on, Traci doesn't feel safe. She avoids the windows at night, knowing that he might be outside again,…
Our old friend Varma is getting better and better. Here's a magazine story on the fall of the T-Rex. Great opening line: It's the time of the long heat, when everything in Andhra P…
On my way into work the other day I noticed an elderly man sitting on the sofa in the lobby, holding a large portfolio on his lap. I nodded and said hello and he stood quickly. The…
Shortlist rounds up the 50 best opening lines in movies. It's interesting how these picks all do a good job of setting the story in motion. Take a look. Patton: "Now I want you to…
We published a special themed Floridian section last week that I'm very proud of, and I nearly forgot to point out some of the great little stories we pulled together. Here's the t…
Caitlin Johnston said I should post this essay in honor of Father's Day. Great idea. Here's Wright Thompson: Most everything makes me think about my Daddy, and this morning, of all…
From my inbox: "I'm starting to work on a profile, and when I do that I always love to go back and read great profiles for a little inspiration. I was wondering if youd be willing…
This essay, by Bill Marvel, will be published as the Introduction to Ten Spurs, Vol. 6, the Mayborn's anthology of the 10 best reported narratives and essays submitted to their ann…
An amazing and disturbing and fearless story from Patrick Hruby. Read it before it disappears: I believe in the fix. I believe in the hidden hand, that sports have a secret, redact…
Wright Thompson: TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Something important is being lost. Each rising sun takes a little more from the couple who live in the small brick home southwest of downtown. B…
David Carr: My worry is not about the loss of the earthy smell of freshly rendered pages. A newspaper, even one short on advertising, is a great ad for at least one thing: the pape…
of Writer of the Year for 2012 at the National City and Regional Magazine Awards in Las Vegas, is my old buddy Justin Heckert. This is the second time he's won, which might possibl…
Jeff Passan: ST. LOUIS – Collin J. Grundstrom, a streaker of considerable skill in the art of persistence and drastically less in that of evasion, was going to get naked Thursday n…
Andy Netzel: Kevin Kiley glares at Chuck Booms overtop his reading glasses. His eyes double in size and his voice is full of annoyance as a small smile creeps across his lips. "Exc…
From Mark Johnson: I'm an avid obituary writer and a big fan of Margalit Fox of The Times. This one is an example of why her obituaries consistently reward the reader. Great quotes…
Mike Mooney: Jeffrey Maxwell told the police officers that his house was a mess. He stepped outside and closed the door behind him. He was a big man, 6-foot-5 with nearly 300 pound…
"… people are still going to print, print will remain very strong." — Ricky Matthews, January 2012. The news out of New Orleans makes me ill. NOLA Media Group will significantly in…
Dan Barry: Another wintry Sunday morning at 7. And in the bifurcated building of a century-old Catholic parish called St. Joseph's, the faithful gather. On one side of the church w…
Barry Bearak: GILA HOT SPRINGS, N.M. — Micah True went off alone on a Tuesday morning to run through the rugged trails of the Gila Wilderness, and now it was already Saturday and h…
From a 2002 conversation between Dick Gordon and Studs Terkel (thanks Dan Stockman): My north star, my guide, is a poem by Bertolt Brecht. I'll offer brief passages from it. We thi…
According to Frank Deford, the best story to appear in 61 years of Sports Illustrated is a deadline boxing piece from 1975 called 'Lawdy, Lawdy, He's Great,' by the late Mark Kram.…
Hank Stuever: Looking for something to do in Kansas on a sunny Saturday last spring, I chose darkness, and drove to Hutchinson (pop. 42,000) to take a tour of the subterranean salt…
This is fiction, but pretty cool as a storytelling device. (thanks, Craig)
INTERVIEWER When did you realize that you had talent? TALESE Never. All I have is intense curiosity. I have a great deal of interest in other people and, just as importantly, I hav…
Lane DeGregory: TAMPA — He keeps his keyboard in the nurses' closet on the trauma ward, beside the potty chairs and batteries. Three days a week, he takes out the Casio and sets it…
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, Charlie LeDuff: (thanks, Oliver)
Tim Botos: JACKSON TWP. — His beat up Asics running shoes tossed aside, a barefooted Andrew Rihn stretched his leg muscles and swiveled his head back and forth to work the kinks ou…
Check out Paul Hoover: The footsteps begin before dawn Wednesday morning on Tubman Boulevard, runners pounding away down the main artery into the heart of Monrovia. You don't find…
As @caryaspinwall said, Replace this, machines. When he was 12 years old, the boy did something he only later realized probably hurt his seventh-grade teacher. It was minor — he wa…
They're coming for us. Last year at a small conference of journalists and technologists, I asked Hammond to predict what percentage of news would be written by computers in 15 year…
David Barstow does it again: MEXICO CITY — In September 2005, a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an alarming e-mail from a former executive at the company's largest foreign subsidia…
Our friend Tommy Tomlinson is leaving the Charlotte Observer, where he did wonderful things, for a new sports website, where he will do more wonderful things.
Bill Landauer: Mindy Bennett dreams of the day. She will pack her things. She will pull onto Broadway and turn south on Main Street. She will reach Interstate 83 and head for Balti…
Lee Hill Kavanaugh: She'd read the books last year, twice. But it was "The Hunger Games" movie that sent our 10-year-old daughter climbing our trees, asking for archery lessons and…
Says Heckert: Nonfiction fans/writers/storytellers: A documentary you simply must see.
Chris Jones: I. THE FISK BUILDING On the twenty-second floor of the Fisk Building in New York — an elegant brick giant built in 1921, stretching an entire block of West Fifty-seven…
Doug Miller: The red dots covered Dave Cameron's legs. The purplish bruises crawled up his arms. Cameron hadn't thought much about them. As one of the baseball world's most respect…
Dan Barry: Disparage the Three Stooges if you must, you cineaste. Dismiss their films with a weary wave of your smoldering Gauloise. But give them this: Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp…
Ben Montgomery: In 2005, as lawmakers pushed to pass sweeping self-defense legislation that would become known as the "stand your ground" law, critics had one challenge: Show us a…
Somehow, while I wasn't looking, the Nieman narrative conference re-appeared in the form of something called the NarrativeArc Conference. It happened March 23-25. The speakers incl…
Mike D'Orso writes to me: A dear friend of mine, a well-known local radio deejay and music producer here in the Norfolk area came down with cancer at about your age. During her las…
Thomas Lake and Melissa Segura: To the many levelheaded conspiracy theorists of Venezuela, at least this part of the story rings true: There was a kidnapping on Nov. 9 in a concret…
NPR's Noah Adams profiles my colleague Lucy Morgan, a legendary investigative reporter in here in Florida.
Jeff MacGregor: Understand, everything is better everywhere. But the snares and catches of race and racism are still out there. Hidden. Persistent. And inside that entangling truth…
Nigel Duara: SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — The Springfield that exists in the mind of Matt Groening is a kind of American everything — hick pit stop, rosy-cheeked Rockwellian font of family…
Michael Rubino: The man traipsing about the rusty Dumpster last spring caught Karen McGuire by surprise. Stevie? she wondered. Who else could it be, digging through the trash? Then…
An excerpt from Tom Stoppard's play, The Real Thing, Act Two, the middle of Scene Five: HENRY: It's no good. ANNIE: You mean it's not literary. HENRY: It's not literary, and it's…
Wright Thompson: James Brown's daughter and one of his former assistants rolled through the streets of his hometown Thursday, worried about Masters traffic. They mostly focused on…
Harry Crews has died. Here's a good one, circa 1984: The Violence That Finds Us
Recently, while transcribing some interviews, I realized that I talk too much. It's a natural human impulse: The other person is sharing, so you want to share too. That's how good…
Big thanks to Erik Hahmann for pulling together this Q and A with Spencer Hall. Enjoy. Here's Erik: I'm going to be disappointed if Spencer Hall never writes a novel. That's not so…
Lane DeGregory: SANFORD These days, Cheryl Brown has to walk the dog. • For a month — ever since her son heard someone screaming for help and her daughter called 911 and everyone h…
The latest classic of straight-faced police reporting from Erin Sullivan: Doyle Hardwick found himself back at the Land O'Lakes jail this week, this time for 60 days, all because h…
She's a good girl, loves her mama Loves Jesus and America too She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis Loves horses and her boyfriend too It's a long day livin' in Reseda There's a…
A story by Michelle G. Chan in American Journalism Review describes the decision Emily Nipps made to leave the Tampa Bay Times for a PR job at a hospital. (Even though, according t…
The Virginian Pilot's Corinne Reilly won the Ernie Pyle Award last week for a five-part series called A Chance In Hell. Here's Part I: KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN The doctors can hear th…
The riveting start of Mike D'Orso's "The Sniper," The Virginian-Pilot, March 22, 1987: The sun lay low in the Vietnamese sky. Steam rose from the damp jungle mulch. The only sound…
" … story should always be subordinate to the truth … " -30-
One prominent newspaper editor dies under embarrassing circumstances. Then a second editor is fired for misleading the paper, which she apparently did to protect the first editor's…
The Bow Tie By Henry Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer January 26, 1986 I wear a bow tie, even though John T. Molloy — he's the one who wrote "Dress for Success" — says that pe…
Dan Barry: LAKEWOOD, Ohio After the makeover of St. Sebastian, the arrows that pierce the martyr's torso look newly received. After the touch-up of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the myst…
Tips on writing, from John Steinbeck. And this disclaimer: "If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe th…
Del Quentin Wilber: It is 6:24 a.m., the sun has not yet risen and the parking lot remains a lattice of shadow and orange-yellow streetlight as Deputy U.S. Marshal Willard King and…
Thomas Curwen on Paterniti's masterpiece: "The Long Fall of One Eleven Heavy" was first published in Esquire in July 2000, and 12 years later, I find myself admiring with each read…
Josh Green: In the days after her son vanished four years ago, it seemed to Erika Wilson that everyone wanted to help. There were Justin's friends, of course, the ones he'd called…
An excellent primer from successful freelancer Jennifer Kahn: Never pitch a story until you know who the characters are going to be and understand the arc of their story: You may n…
David Simon: Seven-baker-twenty-four unit turns at Mosher and rumbles past that stretch of Appleton Street where Gene Cassidy took two in the head for the company, the first one st…
Leah Sottile: It was a Tuesday. In a dusty-orange bedroom — papered in Twilight posters and stacked with stuffed animals — 13-year-old Casey Holliday brushed her dark hair into a s…
A classic work from Gary Smith, Esquire, 1990 (thanks, Ed K.): Slowly, so the bed wouldn't creak, the millionaire who couldn't sleep rose and walked barefoot to the bookshelves. "T…
The 17 books Ernest Hemingway would rather read again for the first time than have an assured income of $1 million a year.
The numbers are in. Female writers are significantly underrepresented in major national magazines, just as they are here on Gangrey. Anyone care to speculate on why that is? Sub-qu…
Eli Saslow: HELEN FORD DRIVES to the house from memory, parks along the curb and idles in her car. This three-story duplex in Cambridge, Mass., had been her home for 40 years, but…
Here, preserved digitally by Joe Kovac Jr., is Tom Junod's 1994 GQ gem, "Pull The Trigger." Junod: He shouldn't laugh, but that first time with the gun – it was funny, you know? Th…
The Baron on a new direction for Reuters: During a recent visit to European bureaux Ingrassia contrasted what he termed "adrenaline journalism" – the traditional wire service story…
Congratulations to Teddy Cahill of the Ball State Daily News, who took second in the Hearst sports reporting awards for this story.
Diana Moskovitz: After all the torment and torture, Nubia Barahona could still flash a smile. It was radiant and confident, set off by blond bangs and big hazel eyes. She smiled li…
Justin Heckert scores three nominations and competes with Tony Rehagen for Writer of the Year.
Katherine Boo: July 17, 2008—Mumbai Midnight was closing in, the one-legged woman was grievously burned, and the Mumbai police were coming for Abdul and his father. In a slum hut b…
Really glad this was on 1A of the Tampa Bay Times. Will Hobson: LARGO — This was never just about the pig, the neighbors say, but the pig was a problem. Last March a loud, large, s…
Tommy Tomlinson deconstructs "Ode To Billie Joe."
Kevin Pang interviews Montgomery and Kruse for a podcast. Montgomery describes his beat the same way he's been describing it for many years: "Loneliness, human collisions, choices…
On Radiolab: Christopher Daniel Gay has broken out of jail more times than anyone else alive. He is the stuff of country songs and film rights. Reporter Ben Montgomery learned abou…
Kevin Sieff: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Abdul Hakim gets the first calls just after the bombs explode and the firefights end, when all that is left are the remains of the dead. The vo…
Joe Kovac: A young man was dead in the leaves beneath a pecan tree. For four days, his body lay face up on some irises near a patch of wild daffodils just off the porch of a mud-co…
Ouch. It's That Couch. A Seasonal Paean to the Sofa Bed. By Henry Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer December 19, 1996 This is the season of the sofa bed, the hideaway, the conve…
Without sin, you have no story.
Lebanese along the border started fleeing to Tibnin on the war's first day. It was a bigger town than most, known as a picnic spot, perched over tobacco farms, rows of pines and th…
Michael Kruse: STARKE — The state executed Robert Waterhouse on Wednesday night, more than 32 years after he beat, raped and killed petite, red-haired Debbie Kammerer in St. Peters…
T Lake: After the autopsy, when the doctor found white blossoms of scar tissue on Wes Leonard's heart, he guessed they had been secretly building there for several months. That wou…
Storyteller Uprising is free on Kindle until midnight. More about it from Sree Sreenivasan here. (thanks Nigel)
Andy Meacham: ST. PETERSBURG — Nancy Livingston grew up with a mother who administered scheduled daily paddlings, threatened to send her to an orphanage and dismissed her straight-…
Dan Zak: An order has come in from China. Someone in China is looking for an old book. "Oh Edward, did you have energy left to hunt for one?" says Natalie Hughes. "What was it?" he…
Eli Saslow: ORLANDO — She was scheduled to deliver a speech across town in 30 minutes, but she did not know where to go, or how to get there, or exactly what she would say if she m…
Wright Thompson: LONDON — After the torture of eight disconnected hours, the plane lands at Heathrow. We're still rolling when I turn on both phones, hitting refresh on my email, b…
John Keilman: PERU, Ill. —— They buried Anthony Wagner in his hometown two days before Veterans Day. It was cold, with a stinging wind that tore the last few leaves from the trees…
My pal Chris Zuppa has quietly been chipping off pieces of a series that looks at the lives of people in South St. Pete. It's coming together like a smooth and visually appealing o…
Two jobs you should consider if you're looking. You'd be working for an editor who knows story at the Casper Star-Tribune. There are the postings: Crime/Courts and Education. Apply…
Chris Goffard: Reporting from Imbaseni, Tanzania — The fugitive shuffles to his computer and begins typing out his will. He is about to turn 71, and it is time. "My life," he write…
Fun Q and A with Kerry Burke, a murder and mayhem reporter for the Daily News: … When you arrive at a crime scene, what's generally happening? How do you go about reporting? Very o…
Tom Junod: The guys were coming over. That's what Fred and Charlotte Thomas both called them — "the guys," as though they were Fred's poker buddies. Fred and Charlotte were both in…
Man, howI love this. I encourage you to find the time to listen to it rather than read it.
Eli Saslow: CONWAY, S.C. — He awoke to his alarm on Monday morning at 6, just like always, even though his handwritten schedule for the day read only: "Find something to do!" Steve…
Chris Rose, circa 2007: As is the fate of most self-styled inventors, pioneers and visionaries — those who toil in decades of anonymity, never realize their dreams and eventually d…
Please take a look at the work of Michael Graff, from N.C.'s Our State. (Thanks, Sarah) The Oyster Way: Down in the mud in the North Carolina sounds,the oyster finds a home and sti…
Agree? Patrick Hruby: … Turn on ESPN. There are score tickers and headline crawls, slick graphics and constant teases for upcoming stories, everything creating a sense of urgent im…
A tale of Texas justice and mysterious salt poisoning, from Pamela Colloff: WHAT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT ANDREW Burd's early life is contained in a slim Child Protective Services cas…
Nick Schmidle: A little after 9 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1990, the owner of a steel-products company pulled up to her office in Vinegar Hill, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and spotted a bl…
Martin Luther King Jr., in one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever read: I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for f…
12/26/02 Why did you want to be a journalist? Henry Grade 4 USA Dear Henry, What a great question. Well, I always liked writing. But it was more than that: Being a journalist re…
Tom Lake: The most infamous roster decision in high school basketball history came down 33 years ago on the edge of tobacco country, between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Oc…
On the occasion of the first 2012 presidential primary, Dan Zak unearthed Henry Allen from 1988: New Hampshire is a fraud. Which is to say that behind that idyll of white-steepled,…
Susan Baer: The dark-oak farmhouse table where Page and Robert Melton spent many a dinner hour is now laden with vases and framed pictures, fragile pieces of their life together th…
Dan Barry: TUCSON January has come again to Tucson. The pleasant days all but demand a hike or a bicycle ride. The cool evenings cast the Santa Catalina Mountains in a mesmerizing…
Manny Fernandez: HUNTSVILLE, Tex. — Kenneth Wayne Davis died at 54 as not so much a man but a number: Inmate No. 327320. Mr. Davis was charged, convicted, sentenced and incarcerate…
Charlie LeDuff, ladies and gentlemen: Ring of Gunfire: Detroit EMS Unit Stranded on New Year's Eve : MyFoxDETROIT.com
Paterniti, in a project for Ira Glass, in the NYT Mag (thanks, Dan Stockman): If you'd been born to farmer parents in Battambang province, in the country of Cambodia, and been give…