narrative nonfiction

  • This is the beginning of a semi-regular series sharing recent projects and bylines. I’ll be publishing these posts whenever I have a small crop of new published works to share. Alpine House Made with Beetle Kill Pine (Dwell) My first byline for dwell.com, this assignment was dropped in my lap (love when that happens). I

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  • Top Reads of 2023

    I’m already deep in the stacks for 2024, but here’s a look at my favorite reads from 2023. They’re presented in the order I read them, not order of importance. The Road to Character by David Brooks The driving question of this book is: How do you foster virtue? Over the the course of 10

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  • Longform stories I’ve read lately and enjoyed. Keepers of the Secrets by James Somers, The Village Voice Step into the archives at the New York Public Library and meet “the most interesting man in the world.” He’s 39 and knows the archives more intimately than many parents know their own children. Those boxes of paper artifacts

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  • Some of my favorite longform stories from the last few months. The Girl Detectives by Marin Cogan, Topic A student club at the University of Pittsburgh takes on unsolved, real world mysteries — and just happens to be dominated by women. Escaping Kakuma by Louis Bien, SB Nation I hadn’t read an SB Nation feature in a

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  • Every month, week, day, I’m adding more stories to my to-read list. Here are a few favorites from the past few months: What Bullets Do to Bodies by Jason Fagone, Highline An up-close portrait of the work of Dr. Amy Goldberg, a trauma surgeon in North Philly who’s seen more bullet wounds in the past 30

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  • This past spring, I ordered a copy of Everyone Leaves Behind a Name after hearing about the book and its author, Michael Brick, on Gangrey: The Podcast. I frequently listen to podcasts like Gangrey, which interviews working narrative journalists, but this episode was different because instead of interviewing the headlining writer, all 51 minutes were a conversation

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  • “Crap. Crap. Mega crap.” That’s what I thought when I read my draft three days later. This is what I (re)learned while revising.

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  • This post is part of a series recommending longform, narrative nonfiction (as well as other worthwhile writings). The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort Of) Rattled the Scientific Community by Jon Mooallem, The New York Times Magazine The most quotable piece I’ve read recently, this story examines the culture of cloud-loving in a way that observes science, philosophy, and

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  • This post is part of a series recommending longform, narrative nonfiction (as well as other worthwhile writings). The Real Story of Germanwings Flight 9525 by Joshua Hammer, GQ Mental illness and airline pilots. I recently wrote a story about Taylor University’s Ethics Bowl team, and this was one of the ethics bowl cases. You see, if a pilot

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  • This post is part of a series recommending writing you should read — especially nonfiction. Good writing can transport you to any time or place so seamlessly that you feel like you were actually there, actually experiencing those things. Since I learned to read at five years old, doing phonetic worksheets to a cassette tape in the

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