George Getschow is to storytelling in newspapers what Carli Lloyd is to scoring in soccer: dogged and indefatigable. For more than a decade now, Getschow has served as leader of a tribe of journalists and authors devoted to the nonfiction narrative. Members of the tribe come together each July at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference outside of Dallas for congenial conversations about the craft, to rub elbows and bend elbows with some of the best in the business.
One product of this effort is a book (this year’s is Volume Two) published by the University of North Texas Press titled The Best Newspaper Narratives, an anthology edited by Getschow, containing the work of winners of a contest sponsored by Mayborn. I have a special interest in this work: 1) I served as a judge of the contest for the first two years; 2) I have made a presentation at Mayborn and been greeted as a member of the tribe; and 3) I was the first editor of a Poynter publication that lasted almost 30 years titled Best Newspaper Writing, which collected the winners of ASNE’s distinguished writing competition.
The Best American Newspaper Narratives is a worthy heir to Best Newspaper Writing. At 500 pages long, it can serve as a noble paperweight or a missile to target a stubborn editor’s head. Volume Two contains the work of more than a dozen writers, representing newspapers that have been long associated with storytelling and enterprise work:  the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Virginian-Pilot, the Arizona Republic, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Poynter’s own Tampa Bay Times. (We can hope that as this contest becomes more well-known that smaller news organizations will get in on the act.)
Readers of this book will benefit from a crafty and insightful introduction from Getschow himself. I tend not to be much inspired by book introductions, but this one gave me intellectual goose bumps. He places these contemporary narratives in a historical context, tracing the impulse for storytelling in journalism back to the 19th century in the work of Mark Twain, Lafcadio Hearn (whom every storyteller in journalism should read), and Stephen Crane. Their torches would be handed in the 20th century to the likes of Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Joan Didion, and Hunter S. Thompson.
What a pleasure it must be for the writers of the 21st century represented in this collection to be mentioned in that distinguished company: Eli Saslow, Eric Moskowitz, Mark Johnson, Christopher Goffard, Stephanie McCummen, Michael M. Phillips, Aaron Applegate, Meg Kissinger, Michael Kruse, Shaun McKinnon, Mike Newall, and Sarah Schweitzer.
I’ve argued a thousand times that there is an important difference between writing reports and writing stories. One is not better than the other. But they are different in execution and effect. The report has as its goals: the gathering, checking, and presentation of information in the public interest. The report “points you there.” The story may contain information, but its purpose is to render experience. The story “puts you there.”
The report hangs on the five W’s: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. The story puts them in motion, so that Who becomes Character; What becomes Scenic Action; Where becomes Setting; When becomes Chronology; and Why becomes Motive.
Each writer in Getschow’s anthology puts us on the scene, places where we could never venture in our routine lives:
- A home where the parents of a child, victim of a mass murderer, try to redeem their loss.
- The car of a man hijacked by the Boston Marathon bombers — which I did an X-ray reading of when the article was published.
- The cross-country journey of a mother trying to rescue her son from mental illness.
- A man-hunt for a cop turned killer.
- A team of courageous firefighters facing a forest holocaust.
- The replica of an antique sailing vessel going down in a hurricane.
And much more.
My only criticism of The Best American Newspaper Narratives – I offer it as a compliment in disguise – is that it left me wanting even more. At the risk of making the book even longer, I would recommend some features that existed from the beginning in the Best Newspaper Writing series: analysis of the stories and styles of the writers and interviews with the writers themselves.
In 2004, for example, I interviewed Dan Neil, who had just won an ASNE award for his automotive criticism. “What are some specific tools that you use on all of your stories now?” I asked him.
He responded: “I try to create some fascination for the reader by linking seemingly unconnected ideas, bringing either a cultural or an engineering concept to bear that informs the story, so it’s a surprise and delight in three words. A lot of my tropes are the wedding of unusual ideas and showing how they work together.”
The great writing coach Donald Murray once inspired at the Providence Journal a series of essays – turned into books – entitled “How I Wrote the Story.” Those explanations from writers, accompanied by expert commentary, remain the best resources for readers wanting to learn the writing process.
(I conclude this review with an unusual public message to my colleagues at Poynter: From 1979 through 2008 we published an annual collection of Best Newspaper Writing. Think of all the great examples and revealing interviews that are now hiding on our bookshelves. Let’s think about the many ways we could re-purpose that material for the digital age.)
