Sarah Topol spent a year and a half reporting on what life is like for a deserter in the Russian army. Her reporting “The Deserter: An epic story of love and war,” is “a thrilling tale of escape and a disturbing account of the war. It’s also a revealing portrait of how Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine has ricocheted through the private lives of Russia’s citizens, and the desperate choices some of them have made to survive,” the Times Magazine reports.
That work earned Topol, a Times Magazine contributing writer, the Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence in the 2025 Poynter Journalism Prizes. Topol spoke with the WriteLane podcast’s Maria Carrillo and Lane DeGregory about the delicate reporting. She also shared some advice for young journalists.
Keep pushing. Journalism is a tough business and it’s not easy to get into, she said. It takes time to find the right editors.
“Everyone will always say no,” Topol said. “It’s always easier for people to say no than to say yes, but your job is to not listen to them. Just don’t.”
Eventually, she said, you’ll find the right editor who will respond to and care about your ideas.
One thing we don’t talk enough about, she said, is “writing is so hard. It’s so hard to learn it. If you didn’t go to journalism school or you don’t have, I don’t know, some kind of foot in the door like that. It’s just when you read a great piece of journalism, the reason it’s great is because you have no idea how much work went into it, and it’s so hard to figure out how to do it yourself unless someone kind of sits down and walks you through it and walks you through it again.”
In a world where it’s easier to say no, Topol said, keep trying.
You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, and watch the conversation on YouTube.
