My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: Time to get outside. Plus: @keithob.bsky.social @jlussenhop.bsky.social @propublica.org @brendanomeara.bsky.social @rusty.todayintabs.com niemanstoryboard.org/2026/05/15/y...

With so many significant pieces published each year, how do the Pulitzers get chosen in the first place? Last week's @niemanstoryboard.org newsletter dives into the details: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2026/05/08/behind-the-scenes-pulitzer-juror/

"These are the decisions that are in part responsible for the hundreds of men being flown across the country to rural detention centers."

A matrix of spreadsheets and physical calendars can help a writer organize notes, track scenes and visualize a story timeline.

I'm currently reading this particular book and it's excellent if you're looking for a recommendation.

Yup.

“When I was a younger editor, I resisted getting drawn into long conversations and kept things on email because I was trying to be efficient. But the more I have taken the time to be like, ‘Hey, can we actually just hop on the phone to talk about this?’”

"I knew I needed people who readers were going to want to spend a lot of time with. I had three characters in the proposal but four in the book. One from the proposal ended up in the book."

“I’m lucky to be small enough to escape too much notice,” she said, “and I've mastered the art of invisibility when I need to.”

What are the ingredients that make a memorable podcast?

“On a really, really basic level, the entire story is about him throwing a bowling ball. So why not start with the way he throws a bowling ball?"

My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: Behind the scenes with Pulitzer jurors Erika Hayasaki and @mindahoney.bsky.social. niemanstoryboard.org/2026/05/08/b...

Journalists, authors, producers, filmmakers, and Nieman Storyboard readers share more than 40 books that inspire their work.

"Don't start from the grant; start from the story.”

"John Woodrow Cox has worked to master the art of helping children talk about a fraught but rarely covered subject — the long-term physical and psychological effects of being victims and witnesses of gun violence. His mantra: ‘Always go and always stay.’”

"In feedback after feedback, I found myself asking the question: What is the heart of your story? Why do you care about these characters, this event?"

“I think a lot of these more local decisions get ignored because they seem routine or boring or small compared to what happens on a federal level.”

My Friday newsletter @niemanstoryboard.org: More lessons from @powerofnarrative.bsky.social, Erika Hayasaki on reported essays, @emilygouldnymag.bsky.social on the internet's "load-bearing" blog posts, @naokan.bsky.social's history of New Yorker short stories. niemanstoryboard.org/2026/05/01/y...

Yes. The greater the detail, the more focused on a single person, the more universally relevant it becomes.

“Every reporter has one of those story ideas simmering on the back burner that they simply can’t let drop. For Raquel Rutledge, it started with a house fire.”

"Conclusions, though, bedevil me. What are they supposed to accomplish? You’ve already followed me to the end of the story, so the act of seduction has succeeded; what do I do with you now? How do we say goodbye?"

“I’ve long believed that the more intimate you can make a story, the more universal it becomes.”

“The idea was to go to an ordinary place where something extraordinary happened. Something traumatic or life-transforming happened there.”

Peabody Winner: The New Yorker's Sam Wolson on ‘Cleared by Fire’ and Interactive Storytelling

"I remember like at one of our last meetings, you know, just laughing out of nowhere. And Jad's like, ‘What are you laughing at?’ I'm like, ‘Dude, you did it. You made a documentary that we could dance to.’" niemanstoryboard.org/2026/04/23/j... #podcasts #journalism

“There was this deeper history I've always been interested in, the way any of us are formed by our family lineage, the way families come to new places.” @praddenkeefe.bsky.social

"My proposal was probably 80 pages and had character sketches of people I thought would be my primary protagonists. I did find it harder to get people to talk to me for a book proposal rather than an actual book." @greenwell.bsky.social

"My grandmother had 11 children. I spoke with all the daughters. I didn't interview her sons. I really wanted to get the story through the gaze of the women and the daughters." @sasha-bonet.bsky.social

"Acknowledgments are a unique window on the writing process. Thompson walked me through who made the cut and why." @elongreen.bsky.social with Wright Thompson

"For everybody in the story that made the final cut, there were many more who didn’t get that far, who had other reasons for not wanting to talk, and a good many of them were trauma." @johnarchibald.bsky.social

This was such a fun piece to work up! Thanks to @markarms.bsky.social for letting us go wonky on sound design and ID taboos in audio storytelling.

"This episode was born from recognizing a pattern. Which was that people talk about being at the Shrine, and the experience of falling into a kind of hail of music. We just kept hearing that." Great new podcast annotation by @bartona104.bsky.social niemanstoryboard.org/2026/04/23/j...

My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: @bartona104.bsky.social on "Fela Kuti: Fear No Man." Plus: @atrubek.bsky.social on nonfiction publishing, @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social on access, @sidneyhillman.bsky.social awards. niemanstoryboard.org/2026/04/24/m... #podcasts #longreads

"I remember the kid looking at my mom, and I remember thinking, Oh there is this power transfer. My mom suddenly was the most powerful person in the room." — Soledad O'Brien niemanstoryboard.org/2026/02/05/s... #journalism #longreads #documentary

"This was a timeless story that became more salient to people — that they understood better — because the Dobbs decision was bringing everything to a head." @irincarmon.bsky.social niemanstoryboard.org/2026/03/05/a... #booksky #longreads #journalism

"Learning about the topic is not enough to frame it as a story."

"Reporting is more than conducting interviews and finding primary sources — it's uncovering long-buried archival material, observing details in photographs that others may have missed." niemanstoryboard.org/2026/04/03/d... #longreads #journalism #booksky

"I don’t think this is a story about resilience or hope. It’s a story of a complete failure of accountability." @kerryhowley.bsky.social niemanstoryboard.org/2026/03/27/i... #journalism #longreads

"I think when people start, a lot of journalists don't think about their stories as stories. They think about it as providing information. So even the idea of, ‘Let me tell you a story’ is not forefront in a lot of especially young news reporters' minds."

"In grief, he found catharsis in writing tiny true stories — defining moments, memories, micro-narratives — each paired with a black-and-white photograph with the mood and grain of film." Kim Cross on the work of @danieltroppy.bsky.social

Longtime fan of these PNW journalists. Both are extremely skilled at digging deep to uncover the story behind the story.

Today my short stories was featured on the @niemanstoryboard.org site. The article was written by the talented Kim Cross. Thank you Kim and thanks to anyone that has stopped to read my stories. niemanstoryboard.org/2026/04/17/a...

"What you realize pretty quickly in the show is that we directly interrogate what true crime is." @leahsottile.bsky.social and @ryanjhaas.bsky.social niemanstoryboard.org/2026/01/22/l... #podcasts #storytelling #journalism

Our Friday newsletter: Kim Cross on the art of the micro-narrative. niemanstoryboard.org/2026/04/17/a...

"I think that working in film has helped me to see things in scenes when I'm reporting, and then to string those scenes together in a way that feels vivid and motivated."

"My entry into the story is replicating what the reader would experience.” @susanorlean.bsky.social

“I think of it as the micro that reveals the macro. A friend has a more sophisticated way to think of it. She calls it the Physics of Storytelling, where the more intimate and individual a story, the more universal it becomes.”

“I think it feels good for anybody to tell their story, particularly if it’s a story that they've, for one reason or another, kept a little bit locked away.” @praddenkeefe.bsky.social

“It’s a primal form of storytelling: ‘Let me tell you what happened right on this spot a long time ago.’” @matthewpearlauthor.bsky.social (2017)

“If your outtakes document is just there to kind of be a museum of all the artifacts of your brain, I don't think that's particularly useful. But if your outtakes doc is the soil for growing new ideas, then that’s really the best-case scenario.” — Hannah Seo