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“Battleground America” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 22)
2012 has been a horrifying year for guns: after the shooting of unarmed Trayvon Martin, the massacre at the cineplex in Aurora, Colorado, and the kindergarden shootings in Newtown Connecticut, Americans have refocused on the issue of gun violence. Travon Martin, family photo Battleground America by Jill Lepore in the April 23 New Yorker takes…
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“Life of a Salesman” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 20)
One of my favorite forms of nonfiction work is a well-written profile, especially when the subject of the piece isn’t a celebrity or a politician. It’s not hard to get people interested in a profile on Rhianna or LeBron James, but when a writer can look at at an everyday person and tell their story…
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“Never Let Go” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 19)
I’ve read at least 50 longform stories to this point this month, and I’ve picked 18 to write about so far. But none of them have affected me as deeply Kelley Benham’s “Never Let Go” seres for the Tampa Bay Times. The series is actually three stories — Lost and Found, The Zero Zone, and…
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“A Eulogy for #Occupy” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 18)
When I used to live in D.C., I often biked to work. On my way there, I would pass the tent city that cropped up at “Freedom Plaza” at the end of 2011, part of the spreading “Occupy” and “99%” protest movement. The colder it got, the more I admired their determination to stay and…
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The Hard Life of an N.F.L. Long Shot (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 17)
For most of us, NFL preseason games in August are meaningless. Few of the starters play, the games are sloppy, and nothing much seems to be at stake. The Hard Life of an N.F.L. Long Shot by Charles Seibert for the New York Times Magazine shows us that for a handful of college stars hoping…
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“The Lost City of Z” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 16)
There are longreads. And then there are long longreads. And then there are epic, holy-f@#king-shit longreads that just leave you blown away. The Lost City of Z,” by David Grann in the September 19, 2005 issue of The New Yorker fits into that last category. Photo of explorer Percy Fawcett; source unknown At just over…
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“Lottery Winner Jack Whittaker’s Losing Ticket” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 15)
It’s a cliché to say that money can’t buy happiness, but in the case of Jack Whittaker, who won $314.9 million in the Powerball lottery in 2002, the story is a lot worse than that. In a story that feel like it was pulled from a Hollywood screenplay, Lottery Winner Jack Whittaker’s Losing Ticket by…
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“The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 14)
Within the narrative nonfiction, there is a wide range of genres, including, but not limited to: history, profiles, reported essays, investigative reports, and longform features. And then you occasionally get something like this, which is harder to classify, other than that it’s simply a great story. The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever by Michael J.…
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“The Secret History of Guns” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 13)
As a big fan of authors like Adam Hochschild and Laura Hillenbrand, I’m always impressed with writers who can write about history in a riveting, colorful way. So many of the history books I read in high school and college were lifeless, tedious marches through events, places, and dates. But the best modern nonfiction writers…
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“Netherland” (31 Longreads in 31 Days, Day 12)
When I read through the latest issue of The New Yorker, I thought that I might write-up my take on two other longform pieces in the magazine, the profile of Alabama radio host Paul Finebaum or Ken Auletta’s feature on Elisabeth Murdoch. But the story that grabbed me instantly and haunted me after I put…