2003 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

2003 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism

December 5 - 7, 2003
Hyatt Regency Cambridge Hotel
Cambridge, Mass.

Conference Home

Welcome

Registration

Speakers

Schedule

Hotel and Parking

A Note about the Schedule

A conference schedule remains a work-in-progress: A title or two may change or a speaker call in sick. But here's the program, and it's an exciting one. If you feel frustrated that each choice means giving up another good choice, we've done our job.

We've scheduled each speaker for multiple sessions, so you're sure to catch your favorites. We've also contracted with a company to record every session; tapes and CDs will be sold during the conference -- and afterward, on our Web site.

You do not need to register for specific sessions. Just show up. If you are aching to attend a certain session, show up a bit early.

At our location -- the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 575 Memorial Drive in Cambridge -- you'll find it easy to meet other conference attendees to discuss, network, share ideas and locate lunch and supper companions. The Nieman Foundation will provide light breakfasts and box lunches on Saturday and Sunday. Hors d'oeuvres Friday, too. Friday evening and during lunches Saturday and Sunday, there'll be readings (and film and radio pieces) by our speakers.

Our informal cafe sessions were so well attended last year that we've scheduled six this year. Please join your colleagues in these after-dinner, career-aiding discussions on collaborating, online narrative, writers' groups, making radio pieces, getting published in "little" magazines and how reporters helped turn Denmark's 30 newspapers toward narrative in a hurry.

We're looking forward to greeting you.


Friday December 5	10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.	Registration Hyatt Lobby

	1:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.	Welcome Bob Giles and Mark Kramer

	1:15 p.m. to 2:25 p.m.	Keynote David Halberstam The Pleasures of What We Do

	2:40 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.	Ken Burns and David Halberstam 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHY The Very Unscientific Art of Telling Baseball Stories Cornelia Dean and Jon Franklin 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHY The Very Unscientific Art of Telling Science Stories Jack Hart ETHICS "I Am Not Making This up!": Ethical narrative reporting and writing in the post-Jayson Blair era Florence Graves Why Is So Little Investigative Journalism Narrative?

	4:00 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.	Bob Herbert Beyond the Din: Covering the real lives and tough times of ordinary Americans Rick Meyer A (Silver) Fox Takes Charge of the Chicken Coop: Suggestions from a narrative writer who becomes an editor Jack Hart ETHICS -- Writing Exercise Shaping Realities: The ethics of framing the world with narrative Arlie Hochschild, Samantha Power and Patricia Williams Telling It Well and Deep: Narrative in crossover books Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Reporting in Slow Improv: Turning mistakes and dead ends into insight and direction Lane DeGregory 5 Ws AND AN H -- HOW 20/20: 20 tips from 20 short pieces

	5:20 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.	Readings Hilton Als Cornelia Dean Jon Franklin Florence George Graves Adam Hochschild Anne Hull Mark Kramer Sonia Nazario Susan Orlean Samantha Power

	6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.	Welcome Address Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers

	7:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.	Reception

	9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.	Cafe Sessions Bob Batz and Sara Kuhl How To Start a Narrative Cell -- I Mean Work Group -- in Your Newsroom Ole Soennichsen A Whole Country Tries Narrative: A tale of sudden love and what it means for your country Sarah Wernick Collaboration: Writing narrative books with a co-author


Saturday December 6	7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast Hyatt Lobby

	7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.	Registration Hyatt Lobby

	8:00 a.m. to 8:20 a.m.	Welcome Mark Morrow, The Boston Globe Doug Most, The Boston Globe Jack Hart, The Oregonian Chip Scanlan, The Poynter Institute

	8:20 a.m. to 9:50 a.m.	Keynote Panel Jacqui Banaszynski Tom French Bob Herbert Mark Kramer Nick Lemann Patricia Williams William F. Woo Moderated by Bob Giles ETHICS What's a True Story?: Ethics and attribution for narrative

	10:10 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.	Bob Herbert, Anne Hull and William F. Woo POLITICAL NARRATIVES Writing About Race Barry Siegel 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHERE Crime Scenes: Building scenes and finding the universal in criminal-justice stories Adam Hochschild and Patricia Williams Waging Public Dialogue: Are we alligators in the moat of civic security? Jim Collins, Jack Hart and Barry Newman NARRATIVE IN THE NEWS ROOM Converting the Doubtful, Opening Up the News Hole and Making Way for Grand Projects: How to build a narrative-friendly news room Cornelia Dean POLITICAL NARRATIVES Political Science: Science narratives for an election year Jacqui Banaszynski Profiles in Journalism: Developing character in the news Geri Thoma Narrative Journalism as Book -- Publishing's New Favorite Pursuit: Me-too publishing and the risk of an early arrival on the remainder table Victor Merina Personal Essays in Daily Journalism: The power of our perspectives Cynthia Gorney Writing Exercise

	11:35 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.	Hilton Als, Florence Graves, Arlie Hochschild and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc POLITICAL NARRATIVES Writing About Gender Melissa Fay Greene ETHICS and 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHERE The Ethics and Art of Reconstructing Scenes Jay Allison What About Me?: The first person radio narrative Tom Haines, Louise Kiernan and Rick Meyer NARRATIVE IN THE NEWS ROOM Telling Stories in Teams -- and Getting the Help You Need DeNeen Brown Ledes That Pull in Readers and Middles That Hold Them Chip Scanlan Reporting the Past: Writing the investigative memoir Barry Newman 5 Ws AND AN H -- HOW Anything More Than 1,200 Words Is a Novel: Writing short features Jon Franklin, Cynthia Gorney and Mark Kramer A Writer's Workbench: How we teach narrative

	1:05 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.	Lunch and Readings Ken Burns Jim Collins Tom French Cynthia Gorney Melissa Fay Greene Arlie Hochschild Charlie LeDuff Nick Lemann Barry Newman William F. Woo

	2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.	Keynote Nick Lemann Can You Tell a Story and Convey an Idea at the Same Time?

	4:05 p.m. to 5:05 p.m.	DeNeen Brown, Charlie LeDuff and Nick Lemann POLITICAL NARRATIVES Writing About Class Louise Kiernan 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHAT Beyond Mawkishness: Narrative for hard, complicated stories Cynthia Gorney STRUCTURE From Glimmer to Editable Draft: The story of one story Rick Meyer and Barry Siegel NARRATIVE IN THE NEWS ROOM How You Get to Do Narrative Maria Carrillo and Tom French NARRATIVE IN THE NEWS ROOM Building a Narrative Team Yunghi Kim Nursing an Attitude: Intimate photography of big troubles Mark Kramer and Chip Scanlan ETHICS Applied Ethics 101: High principles and real-life stories Tom Haines We Are Not Monkeys in a Zoo: How to write travel narrative from the inside out

	5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.	Jay Allison, Ken Burns and Adam Hochschild 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHO Couch, X-Ray, Pals, Words, Deeds: A toolbox for exploring character Susan Orlean, Barry Siegel and Geri Thoma Water Into Wine: Transforming your magazine and newspaper story into a book Mark Kramer STRUCTURE How to Come Back From the Field With a Notebook Full of Narrative, and What to Do Next Arlie Hochschild Magnified Moments: Using feeling to find out what's true Jacqui Banaszynski, Tom French and Chip Scanlan NARRATIVE IN THE NEWS ROOM Who Teaches Whom?: Teaching narrative in news rooms Sonia Nazario STRUCTURE From Madness to Method: How to wrestle 110 notebooks into a 34,000-word, six-part series

	8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.	Cafe Sessions Lynn Kippax Making Radio Pieces From Your Newspaper Features Nell Lake and Melinda Patterson Grenier Coming Soon To Your Computer Screen, The Nieman Narrative Digest: Help us perfect an exciting online resource Dan Lehman and Joe Mackall Getting Published: Exploring literary nonfiction magazines


Sunday December 7	7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.	Continental breakfast Hyatt Lobby

	7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.	Registration Hyatt Lobby

	8:00 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.	Keynote Ken Burns Sharing the American Experience

	9:30 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.	Jim Collins, Melissa Fay Greene and Geri Thoma Getting That Narrative Book Proposal Done and Taken Yunghi Kim, Barry Newman and Samantha Power POLITICAL NARRATIVES Not So Far Away: Making international stories relevant Jacqui Banaszynski Seven Paths (and an Eighth Way) to Story: One writer's trash is another's treasure William F. Woo 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHAT The Stories Good Columnists Tell Patricia Williams Positioning Yourself to Enable Candor Adam Hochschild STRUCTURE "I'm Drowning in Notes": How to deal with too much research and not enough structure Tom French STRUCTURE Sequencing Narrative DNA I

	10:55 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.	Mark Kramer and Susan Orlean 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHO Raising Your Voice: Who speaks when you write Maria Carrillo 5 Ws AND AN H -- HOW From Journalist to Storyteller: Advice to reporters and editors on embracing the role of the narrator Rick Meyer and Sonia Nazario Footnotes, Withholding His Name and What if He Starts to Drown?: Some dilemmas in a Pulitzer-Prize winning story Jim Collins Freelancing From Both Sides: An editor-turned-writer on having your narrative published Victor Merina Reporting Across Cultures and Writing About Your Own: Choices in storytelling Anne Hull STRUCTURE Piece Movement: Refining your draft Tom French STRUCTURE Sequencing Narrative DNA II Chip Scanlan Writing Exercise

	12:25 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.	Lunch and Readings Jay Allison Jacqui Banaszynski DeNeen Brown Lane DeGregory Tom Haines Louise Kiernan Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Victor Merina Rick Meyer Chip Scanlan Barry Siegel Patricia Williams

	2:05 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.	Lane DeGregory, Louise Kiernan and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 5 Ws AND AN H -- WHAT Finding the Narrative Core: Developing topics into stories Charlie LeDuff You're Down and Out and Think You've Got Nothing: A talk about sight, sound, smell, imagination and personality Jon Franklin Understanding the Three Levels of a Story: How to add dimension and power to your writing Hilton Als Writing Fiction Victor Merina, Sonia Nazario and Barry Newman POLITICAL NARRATIVES Welcome, Stranger?: Narrative in immigration stories Samantha Power Against Neutrality: Crafting journalism in nasty times

	3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.	Keynote Susan Orlean Making It Matter: Writing with and about passion

	4:45 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.	Closing Bob Giles, Mark Kramer

		Questions? If you have questions about the conference, registering for the conference, our speakers or the schedule, please call (617) 384-9903 or send an e-mail to nieman-narrative@harvard.edu.

The Nieman Foundation Program on Narrative Journalism
Harvard University
E-mail: Nieman-narrative@harvard.edu
Web page: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/narrative
Conference phone: (617) 384-9903

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University
Lippmann House
One Francis Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Telephone: (617) 495-2237
Fax: (617) 495-8976
© 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College