Nieman Schedule

Anybody making plans yet? What are we longing to hear?

2005 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

Draft Schedule

Friday, December 2, 2005

11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Registration

1:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Welcome (Bob Giles and Mark Kramer)

1:15 p.m. – 2:25 p.m. Keynote

Setting, Psychology and Mommy in Narrative Journalism (Tom Wolfe)

2:45 p.m. – 3:55 p.m. Breakout I

• The Gift of Personal Stories (Tom French, Amy Ellis Nutt, Eddy L. Harris)

• Writing for Multiple Cultures Without Reaching for the Least Common Denominator (Victor

Merina)

• On Character (Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Singer)

• Bridging the Gap: Narrative in newsrooms (Robin Gaby Fisher, Laurie Hertzel, John Carroll, Chip

Scanlan)

• Which Story to Tell: Choosing the characters, details, strands, ideas and scenes to move from field

notes to first draft (Jacqui Banaszynski, Mark Kramer, Adam Hochschild)

• Write From Your Tent: Why it pays to put words down in the field (Marc Lacey)

• Writing to Picture: Narrative in TV news stories (Beth Nissen)

• *****Name of session to come (Presenter to come*****)

4:15 p.m. – 5:25 p.m. Breakout II

• Engineering Mega-Narrative Projects (Gerald Boyd)

• Using Narrative Elements to Make Hard Reading Easy (Roy Peter Clark)

• Finding Stories in Everyday Life (Jacqui Banaszynski)

• Three of My Most Effective Narratives and Why (Laurie Hertzel, Tom French, Beth Nissen)

• Writing Workshop: When "hack" isn't a four-letter word — five steps to make writing dreams

happen and other time-management tips for writers (Chip Scanlan)

• Why So Much News Narrative Comes Out Mawkish and What to Do About It (Mark Kramer)

• Sports and Power (Sally Jenkins, Amy Ellis Nutt)

• A Picture of What Happened: Maintaining credibility in the digital age (Michael Williamson)

5:45 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Readings

7:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Remarks

Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers

7:30 p.m. Reception

9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Café Sessions

2

2005 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

Draft Schedule

Saturday, December 3, 2005

7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Registration

7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Keynote Panel

How Must a Storyteller Be Fair? (Cheryl Carpenter, John Carroll, Philip Gourevitch, Mark Singer,

Gerald Boyd, Orville Schell and moderator Mark Kramer)

10:20 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Breakout III

• Putting Endings First: Nine ways to demolish default kickers and make your stories unforgettable

(Chip Scanlan)

• Immersion Reporting: Disappearing inside other worlds, other experiences (Tom French)

• Community Journalism and Narrative (Cheryl Carpenter, Derrick Jackson, Doug McGill)

• Whose Story Is It to Tell? Minorities on minorities (Gerald Boyd, Victor Merina, S. Mitra Kalita,

Mirta Ojito)

• Painting Scenes in Three Media (Marc Lacey, Claudio Sanchez, Michael Williamson)

• "Trust Me": Why the people you write about should (not?) do so (Mark Singer)

• Managing Narrative Writers (Eugene Robinson)

• How "I" Makes the Story (Eddy L. Harris)

11:45 a.m. – 12:55 p.m. Breakout IV

• How to Improve the Climate for Narrative (Cheryl Carpenter)

• Reporting on Your Own: Narrative from within communities (S. Mitra Kalita)

• Telling the Hard Stories (Doug McGill, Orville Schell, Sheila Curran Bernard)

• A Toolbox of Literary Skills for Nonfiction Writers (Phillip Lopate, Eugene Robinson, Eddy L.

Harris)

• 50 Writing Tools in 50 Minutes (Roy Peter Clark)

• Narrative in Breaking News (Sarah Lyall, Tom French, Beth Nissen)

• Covering the Country (Not the City) (Dale Maharidge, Mark Singer, Laurie Hertzel)

• Getting Real: Beyond the heroic (sports) narrative (Sally Jenkins)

1:15 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. Lunch and Readings

2:40 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Keynote

Ambitious Narrative Writing in Newspapers: An editor's perspective (John Carroll)

(Saturday continued on next page)

3

2005 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

Draft Schedule

Saturday, December 3, 2005 (continued)

4:05 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. Breakout V

• In the Beginning Was the (Right) Word: Ledes and nuts (Jacqui Banaszynski)

• Global Narratives for Local Audiences (Doug McGill)

• New Tech and New News: Does changing broadcast technology change what's covered? (Beth

Nissen, Claudio Sanchez, Sree Sreenivasan, Orville Schell)

• Regular Guests: How to entertain week after week with your column (Randy Cohen, Derrick

Jackson, Sally Jenkins)

• Recasting History (Adam Hochschild, Philip Gourevitch)

• From Journalist to Author: Making the transition successfully (Stuart Krichevsky)

• How to be Funny Without Being Mean: Using (but not abusing) people you interview (Sarah Lyall)

• The Reported Memoir: Going beyond memories to craft a personal story (Mirta Ojito)

5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. Breakout VI

• Fact is Stranger than Journalism: Why 'the news' stays tame while reality goes wild (Philip

Gourevitch)

• How Journalists Fail: Clumsiness vs. nastiness (Randy Cohen)

• A Writer/Photographer Partnership that Works (Dale Maharidge, Michael Williamson)

• Medical Stories (Mark Kramer, Diana Sugg, Amy Ellis Nutt)

• What I Learned About Narrative From "Louie, Louie" (Roy Peter Clark)

• In Praise of the Knife: The virtues of cutting (Adam Hochschild)

• Narrative Writing 2.0: Using blogs (and whatever's next) to tell better stories (Sree Sreenivasan)

• Straight A's Don't Mean a Thing if you Don't Have Common Sense (Derrick Jackson)

8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Café Sessions