Articles

Spring 2002: Conference Introduction

Nieman Narrative Journalism ConferenceCambridge, MassachusettsNovember 30 – December 2, 2001Narrative journalism is in transition to a second phase. The first continues—the individual, dramatic phase in which lonely reporters get fascinated…

Why We Need Stories

‘Without them, the stuff that happens would float around in some glob and none of it would mean anything.’

Steps for Managing Your Stories

Lower your standards. Get something down. Swallow the bile that rises in your throat when you write a first draft. Print out early. Read aloud. Apply very critical standards.

Structuring Stories for Meaning

‘Your character gets to the point where something changes.’

Writing in a Personal Voice

‘Your training as journalists is a tremendous platform on which to layer or from which to develop a personal voice.’

Reporters Read From Their Narrative Articles

During the conference, there would come a time each day when writers would share their narrative writings with participants who wanted to listen. And many did. The hundreds of chairs…

Documenting the Rhythms of Cuba

A photographer uses digital video ‘to capture the passion and grittiness of contemporary Cuba.’

Journalists and historians can learn from each other.

Roughly the first 20 years of my working life I spent almost entirely as a reporter for newspapers and magazines. The last six or seven years of it I have…

Examining Religious Paths Into and Out of the Middle East

Through the eyes of two journalists, the lives of Christians and Jews are explored.

‘Monstrous Passions at the Core of the Human Soul…’

A journalist adroitly chronicles the catastrophes that were Mobutu’s Congo.