The Longreads Blog

A Longreads Guest Pick: Sari Botton on ‘Not Weird About Brooklyn’

Sari is a writer and editor living in Rosendale, N.Y. She writes the Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me column on The Rumpus. An anthology she edited for Seal Press, Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, will be released Oct. 8.

“My favorite longread this week is ‘Not Weird About Brooklyn‘ by Helen Rubinstein in the Paris Review Daily. Having left the East Village for upstate eight years ago with very mixed feelings on the matter, I tend to be very curious about other people’s stories of quitting New York City. Love-hate relationships with the place are so common as to border on the cliche – ditto the city’s tenacious gravitational pull despite the hate part of that equation, despite diminishing returns over time lived there. Rubinstein acknowledges the cliche, even the one inherent in writing about it, ‘the trope of the single woman in New York,’ while giving new, nuanced, if meta, voice to it. Her criteria for a potential mate made me laugh (and I cheered this one: ‘Not anti-memoir.’). I was reminded of an essay by John Tierny in the New York Times Magazine in the mid nineties about how fundamentally picky single New Yorkers can be. (In that one, a criteria for potential mates was, ‘…has resolved her control drama.’) Nine days before she leaves, as she packs up her apartment, Rubinstein seems at once melancholy and resigned to leaving, and as if she’s trying to convince herself she’s made the right choice. It’s a familiar conversation, one I have with myself all the time.”

•••

Get the Top 5 Longreads free every week

Caught Up in the Cult Wars: Confessions of a New Religious Movement Researcher

Susan J. Palmer | University of Toronto Press | 2001 | 38 minutes (9,328 words)

The below article comes recommended by Longreads contributing editor Julia Wick, and we’d like to thank the author, Susan J. Palmer, for allowing us to share it with the Longreads community.  Read more…

Required Reading from Journalism Professors

Photo by Seth Sawyers

Below, six syllabi from journalism professors on what you should be reading.

* * *

1. Journalism 494: Pollner Seminar In Narrative Non-Fiction With Esquire’s Chris Jones (University of Montana)

“The purpose of this course is to teach students how to write publishable magazine-length narrative non-fiction: In other words, my aim is to help you learn how to write good, long, true stories. The course outline will mirror a typical writer’s progress through the birth of an idea to a finished, polished piece, including reporting, writing, editing, and fact-checking. In addition to classroom discussion, course readings will help students understand the difference between good and bad work. My hope is that by the end of the semester, you will have written the Best Story of Your Life So Far (BSOYLSF) and it will help you reach your future potential as an award-winning literary journalist.”

2. Journalism 141: Professional Problems and Ethics in Journalism (by Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina)

“The subculture of journalism is no longer as confident of its success. 
Its old values are increasingly under question. The topic of this course
is therefore a moving target. We shall approach it with two organizing principles:

“A critical study of traditional journalistic values, the historical forces that created them. An evaluation of social and technological changes that threaten that subculture – and possibly its value system.”

3. Introduction to Literary Reportage (by Robert S. Boynton, NYU) (PDF)

“The goal of this course is to help you create a distinctive body of work and, eventually, a capstone piece of literary reportage. It has three basic components. First, it will guide you through the research, reporting and thinking to refine and focus the project you will begin in Portfolio I. Second, it will introduce you to some of the authors, editors and publications of the genre. Third, it will familiarize you with some of the journalistic strategies you will use in your own work.”

4. Journalism 676: Investigative Reporting With Pulitzer Prize-Winner Deborah Blum

“I’m happy to share a syllabus, although they’ve gotten more and more abbreviated over the last few years. That’s because, as you know, investigations never seem to follow a planned path. Basically these days, I just do an oral presentation and assignments and we build deadlines, etc. in to the semester, depending on where we are. We do a lot of oral reports and feedback in this class and in the last month of the semester, we start writing/fact-checking/filling in gaps based on the information we’ve assembled.”

5. Syllabus for Telling Stories: the Art of Narrative Non-Fiction (by Alex Kotlowitz, Dartmouth) (PDF)

“This course will explore the art of telling stories – true stories. The craft is often called Literary Journalism or Creative Nonfiction. The writer John McPhee calls it The Literature of Fact, which I prefer for its lack of pretention and for its lack of ambiguity. In this class, we’ll talk about finding story, about reporting and of course about writing, about how one goes about making sense of the tale at hand. I want to push people to find stories outside of the familiar. 
“It’s what makes this craft so exhilarating, to find yourself in places you’d never have reason to be or with people you’d never have reason to meet. What could be more exciting. More challenging.”

6. JOU 6309: Journalism as Literature – Fall 2009 (by Dr. Ronald Rogers, University of Florida)

“This course lies at the crossroads of journalism and literature. During the next 15 weeks we will explore the journalistic, historical and critical tangents that make up the notion of literary journalism as we read and analyze some of the best reportage ever written. In the process of reading the works of many fine journalists, we will weigh how form and content work together to create great factual literature.

“This course has a six-pronged approach. It is a smorgasbord of delectables – all, or any one of which, I hope, you will find tasty. We will explore:

“1. Literary journalism’s historical antecedents – or should we say founders?

“2. Literary journalism’s future in the age of the connected computer.

“3. The criticism literary journalism has received from friend and foe alike.

“4. The theory behind this genre.

“5. The techniques that comprise and define this genre.

“6. Ways of toppling the inverted pyramid in developing our own individual writing styles using the techniques of literary journalism.”

Bonus: What’s On Your Syllabus? (Nieman Storyboard)

Featuring Jacqui Banaszynski, Mark Bowden, Madeleine Blais, Robert Boynton, Jeff Sharlet and Rebecca Skloot.

College Longreads Pick: 'Undocumented but Unafraid' by Yanan Wang, Yale University

Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick:

Yanan Wang’s sympathetic story about undocumented students at Yale University begins with a strong image of a little boy, alone: ‘The first time he arrived in the United States, three-year-old Juan Cerda ’15 was on a truck tire floating across the Rio Grande river.’ The theme of loneliness permeates the story; all of the subjects Wang interviewed discuss feelings of isolation and secrecy. This is not an insignificant piece of reporting on Wang’s part. It’s difficult to find sources who, by virtue of the very thing that makes them newsworthy, wish to maintain their privacy. But not only did she find them, she got them to open up to her. These students entrusted their story to Wang, and she did right by them.

Undocumented but Unafraid

Yanan Wang | Yale Daily News | 14 minutes (3,575 words)

•••

Professors and students: Share your favorite stories by tagging them with #college #longreads on Twitter, or email links to aileen@longreads.com.

Longreads Member Pick: My Family Tree, in Black and White, by Dionne Ford

image

This week we’re excited to share “My Family Tree, in Black and White,” a new personal essay by Dionne Ford and More magazine. The below story comes from the magazine’s September issue, which is not yet online. Thanks to Ford and More for sharing it with the Longreads Member community!

Read an excerpt here.

Become a Longreads Member to receive the full ebook.

First Chapters: ‘White Oleander,’ by Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch | White Oleander, Little, Brown and Company | 1999 | 19 minutes (4,640 words)

 

Our latest first chapter comes from Longreads contributing editor Julia Wick, who has chosen Janet Fitch’s 1999 novel White Oleander. If you want to recommend a First Chapter, let us know and we’ll feature you and your pick: hello@longreads.com. Read more…

Reading List: Fashion Week

Emily Perper is a word-writing human for hire. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker.

It’s Fashion Week at Longreads. From street sense to the ethics of cool, fashion is a fitting follow-up to last week’s “Believe in Your Selfie.”

1. “Girls on the Street.” (Katie Haegele, Utne Reader, September 2013)

Forget Fashion Week—zine maven Haegele would rather cruise the streets of her city for inspiration.

2. “Cool Front/Hot Mess.” (Danielle Meder, The New Inquiry, September 2013)

In the 21st century, in-your-face fashion trumps casual-cool elegance.

3. “4 Models Spill About the Plus-Size Industry.” (Liz Black, Refinery29, September 2013)

Interviews with ladies who rock their curves—Fluvia Lecerda, Candice Huffine, Jessica Milagros Guzman Sanchez and Whitney Thompson.

4. “Happy Birthday, Iris!” (Tavi Gevinson, Newsweek, August 2013)

Rookie Magazine editor and fashion maven Tavi Gevinson interviews nonagenarian style icon Idris Apfel about purpose, growing up, and her New York essentials.

•••

Get the Top 5 Longreads free every week

Photo by Jennifer Livingston for Newsweek.

College Longreads Pick: 'The Final Barrier: 50 Years Later, Segregation Still Exists' by Abbey Crain and Matt Ford, University of Alabama

image

Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick:

One of the hardest rules of writing for students to follow is: “Don’t start a story with a quote.” Except… Except when the quote is so incredible that it makes the reader do a hard-stop. To younger writers, lots of quotes have that power. More experienced writers, who’ve reported more and read more, know better. In this week’s College Longreads pick, the quote-as-lead has the same effect on the reader — abrupt silence — that it did on the room full of people who first heard it. “Are we really not going to talk about the black girl?” Writers Abbey Crain and Matt Ford of the University of Alabama, encapsulate the central conflict of their narrative in that one quote. The story, about racial prejudice in sorority recruitment, is easy to attack because it uses some anonymous sources. But it certainly doesn’t use only anonymous sources, and critics of the story should remember that these sources are 19- and 20-year-old women at the University of Alabama who are recounting incidents of racial prejudice in the entrenched culture of their sorority houses. Should they stand up and speak out publicly for what’s right? Of course they should. Is that an easy thing for a 19- or 20-year-old to do? No, and we should be compassionate about that. But sitting on this story would be a disservice to the readers of the The Crimson White.

The Final Barrier: 50 Years Later, Segregation Still Exists

Abbey Crain and Matt Ford | The Crimson White | 8 minutes (2,034 words)

•••

Professors and students: Share your favorite stories by tagging them with #college #longreads on Twitter, or email links to aileen@longreads.com.

On Muppets & Merchandise: How Jim Henson Turned His Art into a Business

Photo by Eva Rinaldi

Elizabeth Hyde Stevens | Make Art Make Money | September 2013 | 17 minutes (4,102 words)

 

In 2011, Longreads highlighted an essay called “Weekend at Kermie’s,” by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, published by The Awl. Stevens is now back with a new Muppet-inspired Kindle Serial called “Make Art Make Money,” part how-to, part Jim Henson history. Below is the opening chapter. Our thanks to Stevens and Amazon Publishing for sharing this with the Longreads community. Read more…

‘He’s Our Baby’: What Happens When a Child Is Placed in Foster Care

Cris Beam | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | August 2013 | 23 minutes (5,787 words)

 

Below is the opening chapter of To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care, by Cris Beam, as recommended by Longreads contributing editor Julia Wick. Thanks to Cris and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sharing it with the Longreads community.

* * * Read more…