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The Art of Writing the Tough Profile
Gay Talese’s famous “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” is a legendary profile for many reasons, perhaps most notably because the iconic singer wouldn’t talk to him directly. Talese nonetheless delivered an incredible profile of Sinatra, without the benefit of a direct interview. I thought briefly of Talese’s story when I read Nick Paumgarten’s excellent New…
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Washington Post’s “Facebook Story”
As I’ve noted before, many modern web communications create natural narratives. “A Facebook Story” by Ian Shapira in the Washington Post is a powerful work of narrative journalism that follows the story of a pregnant woman’s journey through her posts and those of her family and friends. Most of the story is told through the…
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Read of the Week: “Comic Book Hero”
Browsing the cover story archives of the Washington Post Magazine, I came across this gem of a story, “Comic Book Hero.” by David Rowell. The story profiles Andre Campbell, a 44-year-old legally blind would-be comic book artist. It’s not the story of how he succeeded in overcoming the odds and cracking into comic book publishing…
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What it’s all about
During Tom French’s session yesterday, he mentioned a Washington Post story by Anne Hull as an example of fine narrative journalism. It was about about a woman and her grandson walking down a road in the days after Katrina. I read it this morning and couldn’t agree more. I doubt that many of the countless stories written about…