THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS Literary jourNAl i s m
VOL 2 NO 1 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES WINTER 2008
PURSUING OUR will examine to what extent literary journalists WELCOME OUR past and present—from the U.S. and the U.K., NEW MEMBERS JOURNAL PLANS but also from Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Our association now has almost 40 Australia and South Africa—have contributed members. Recent paid-in-full members A new “Literary Journalism to palliating the quarrel of fact versus fiction include Maria Zulmira Castanheira Proceedings” is underway. and have (re)shaped our notion of what consti- (Nova de Lisboa, Portugal), Dan Close (Wichita State, U.S.A.),Tom Connery (St. tutes a national “literature.” Thomas, U.S.A.), Kathy Roberts Ford By John Bak, Nancy 2 (France) For those interested in participat- (Minnesota, U.S.A.), Mike Grenby (Bond, ing, please send an abstract of 200 words Australia), Amy Mattson Lauters s the fall semester winds down and (including your name, university affiliation (Wichita State, U.S.A.), Jacquie Marino the IALJS listserv remains fairly and rank, and title of your talk) in a Word (Kent State, U.S.A.), Sam Riley (Virginia quiet, please do not think for a attachment to me ([email protected]) Tech, U.S.A.), Patsy Sims (Goucher, and to David Abrahamson (d-abraham- moment that we have lost the momentum of U.S.A.), Charles Whitney (California- [email protected]) by 1 March 2008. Awhich I spoke in the fall issue of the IALJS Riverside, U.S.A.) and Douglas Whynott For more information about the conference Newsletter. Much has been going on behind (Emerson, U.S.A.) the scenes as we build up toward IALJS 3 in or the CFP, visit the ESSE 9 website at Lisbon next http://www.esse2008.dk (see seminar S.32). May. First, some good news: The FUTURE ANNUAL Given Routledge’s European TheMEETINGS following future IALJS convention Society for the decision, we now feel it venues are under consideration. Study of English is necessary 2009: IALJS Annual Convention at (ESSE) accepted to respond to the needs Norhtwestern University, Evanston, Il, our proposal for of our members USA, 14-16 May 2009. a seminar at 2010: IALJS Annual Convention at their Ninth Roehampton University, London, UK, International 13-15 May 2010. Conference at 2011: IALJS Annual Convention at PRESIDENT’S the University Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, of Aarhus, You might also be interested in two other Canada, 12-14 May 2011. LETTER Denmark, 22-26 seminars proposed: S.10, “Research and the August 2008. Literary Periodical: Theory and The seminar, Methodology” and S.36 , “American Little INSIDE entitled “Literary Journalism and the Magazines and Innovative Voices on 2 Info on 2008 Convention Canon,” is currently seeking submissions Language and the Self.” 3 Conference Registration Form from IALJS and ESSE members that respond Every silver lining has a cloud, 4 Sights to See in Lisbon to the following topic: however. For reasons both financial and edi- 6 Call for Papers While literary journalism has generally torial (since our Literary Journalism Studies been considered an American phenomenon, would potentially compete with 7 IALJS Membership Form whose writers include Capote, Mailer, Wolfe, Routledge’s two other journals, Prose Studies 8 Reading List Agee and Didion, today it is practiced and stud- and Journalism Studies), Routledge has 8 Literary Journalisn in Norway ied world-wide. And as journalists look more and decided, after an intense yearlong study, not more to literary devices to tell their stories, and to publish LJS. That year had pretty much 9 Guest Essay fiction writers to immersion reporting to lend a blocked any progress toward publishing 14 Research Perspectives phenomenal reality to their narratives, scholars of work from IALJS 1 and 2. Several of the 16 Work by Members literary journalism have concerted their efforts to IALJS board members had discussed how to 17 Officers and Chairs define the genre’s emerging academic discipline. handle the publication of papers read in One immediate issue has surfaced: how will the Nancy in 2006 and Paris in 2007, and it was 18 Teaching Tips classic examples of literary journalism over the decided that any publication project be put last century or more be regarded within a given WWW.IALJS.ORG nation’s growing literary canon? This seminar Continued on Page 16
PAGE 1 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
LISBON CONFERENCE DETAILS Plans for our 2008 meeting are coming together nicely. By Alice Donat Trindade, TU-Lisbon (Portugal)
he 2008 IALJS meeting is taking of IALJS conferences, which are occasions place in Lisbon, Portugal, and our to listen, participate and interact. In addi- main goal is to be able to build on tion, three panels that have been orga- the experience achieved so far. The Nancy nized: “Teaching Literary Journalism I: As Tand Paris Conferences were two mile- Writing,” “Teaching Literary Journalism II: stones: Nancy was the starting point for As Literature” and “Short-Form Literary our association, and Paris confirmed the Journalism: Testing the Boundaries.” We consolidation of an idea that developed hope that this complementary triplet of into a true organization. The driving force ary journalism as an actual genre for the panels will address the need many of us that took us to first time in their lives. Perhaps our con- feel to share experiences, as well as to per- France on both ference will encourage some of them to haps allow us all to hear about what is occasions was take an interest in the subject—either as a happening in our field on an international the common topic for further research or, following in scale. interest shared the footsteps of Portuguese practitioners, More details on the conference by all involved: as a form for their own writing. and how to attend it may be found at our our interest in For would-be participants, who association’s website, www.ialjs.org. Até o literary journal- are still considering whether or not to breve! ism from both attend (or perhaps submit an abstract), here is a foretaste of things to come. academic and CONFERENCE SCHEDULE (tentative) practitioners’ Thanks to the efforts of our vice presi- points of view. dent, David Abrahamson, Professor Wednesday, 14 May 2008 Lisbon, we Thomas Connery has kindly accepted to CONVENTION Session 0 15.00 – 17.00 IALJS Executive Committee Meeting hope, will mean join us and will be delivering the keynote 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner UPDATE a further step in speech on Thursday, May 15. The tenta- our association. tive title of his presentation is “Literary Thursday, 15 May 2008 Our goal is to Journalism’s Critique of Conventional Session 1 8.00 – 8.45 Welcome and Introduction remain a com- Journalism: Historical Origins and Session 2 9.00 – 10.00 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session I prehensive group, welcoming members Contemporary Issues.” Given the fact that Session 3 10.15 – 11.15 Research Paper Session I Professor Connery is one of the seminal Session 4 11.30 – 12.30 Keynote Speech both from the academic world and the Lunch 12.30 – 14.15 writing community. The fact that all con- founders of the field, conference atten- Session 5 14.15 – 15.15 Panel I ferences have taken place at universities dants will have the opportunity to listen Session 6 15.30 – 16.30 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session II to one of literary journalism’s major Session 7 16.45 – 17.45 Research Paper Session II does not entail any hidden agendas. After Session 8 18.00 – 19.00 IALJS Executive Committee Meeting all, literary journalism would never be an scholars. 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner object of study if there were no writers, so Professor Connery’s presentation all are more than welcome. In fact, we are will conclude the first morning of the con- Friday, 16 May 2008 getting in touch with Portuguese profes- ference. Other sessions will include Breakfast 8.00 – 8.45 Scholars’ Breakfast (optional) sional associations in order to invite them Poster/Work-in-Progress and Research Session 9 9.00 – 10.00 Panel II to join us in our discussions. Paper Sessions. These will be the two Session 10 10.15 – 11.15 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session III Session 11 11.30 – 12.30 Research Paper Session III On the other hand, the confer- types of papers presented at the confer- Lunch 12.30 – 14.15 ence will take place at a college that offers ence. On acceptance, participants will be Session 12 14.15 – 15.15 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session IV a degree in the Media Studies and while informed of the type of session they will Session 13 15.30 – 16.30 IALJS Annual Members Meeting participate in. We must emphasize that Party 16.45 – 18.00 Conference Reception classes are in session. This means that we Dinner 19.00 – ? Conference Banquet will be meeting amongst a community of time allotments will be strictly adhered to: students who might be encountering liter- 20 minutes for Research Papers, 10 min- Saturday, 17 May 2008 utes for Works-in-Progress. Although it Session 14 9.00 – 10.00 Panel III Literary Journalism may sound harsh to be so restrictive, Session 15 10.15 – 11.15 Research Paper Session IV Winter 2008 Vol 2 No 1 please bear in mind that the added value Session 16 11.30 – 12.30 Closing Convocation Editors: Bill Reynolds and David Abrahamson of these conferences lies in the questions Lunch 12.30 – 14.15 © 2008 The Newsletter of the International Association for Tour 14.15 – 17.15 Lisbon Tour and comments from other attendees after 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner Literary Journalism Studies. All rights reserved. the actual presentations. Current mem- bers can attest to the special atmosphere
PAGE 2 LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
2008 IALJS CONVENTION REGISTRATION FORM 15-17 May 2008 Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Please indicate 1.a. PRE-REGISTRATION FEES (MUST BE POSTMARKED ON OR BEFORE 31 MARCH 2008) the applicable amounts: IALJS Member – $100 / 70 Euros IALJS Member Retired – $80 / 55 E Student with research paper on program – free Student without paper on program – $50 / 35 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Non-IALJS member – $140 / 100 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Spouse – $35 / 25 E (This fee is required only if a spouse will be attending scheduled research sessions and/or panels)
1.b. REGISTRATION FEES POSTMARKED AFTER MARCH 31, 2008 (Note: Meals & special events may not be available to those who register after 31 March 2008)
IALJS Member – $130 / 90 Euros IALJS Member retired – $110 / 75 E Student with research paper on program – $30 / 20 E Student without paper on program – $80/55 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Non-IALJS member – $170 / 115 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Spouse – $65 / 45 E (This fee is required only if a spouse will be attending scheduled research sessions and/or panels)
1.c. ON-SITE REGISTRATION – $155 / 105 Euros (Note: Meals & special events may not be available to those who register on site)
2. SPECIAL EVENTS: Please indicate the number of meals required next to each item below Number of meals needed: Regular Vegetarian Scholars Breakfast (Friday) Number attending x $15 / 10 E Conference Banquet (Friday) Number attending x $45 / 30 Euros Sightseeing Tour (Saturday) Number attending x $45 / 30 E Make registration checks payable to “IALJS” TOTAL ENCLOSED:
Return completed form BILL REYNOLDS, IALJS Treasurer For a reservation at the convention hotel in Lisbon, contact: with a check or bank School of Journalism, Ryerson University HOTEL TIVOLI TEJO transfer 350 Victoria St. IALJS Confirmation No. 74.383, Room rate: 105 Euros made payable to Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 CANADA Phone: +351-218-915-100,Fax: +315-218-915-345 “IALJS” to: 01-416-979-5000 x6294 / [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] 3. REGISTRATION INFO Name: Address/Department School City, State, Zip Country E-mail Address Name of Spouse (if attending)
LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 PAGE 3 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
THE MANY ATTRACTIONS OF LISBON We will be meeting in “The White City.” By Isabel Soares Santos, TU-Lisbon (Portugal)
isboa, the cityscape that served as into a country caught mid-way between the Roman Empire. An important strate- the background for Alain Tanner’s a Mediterranean and an Atlantic identity. gic and trading point, Felicitas Julia (as movie In the White City (1983) is the It is a hybrid space, just like literary jour- Lisbon was called) benefited from certain meeting place for the 2008 annual con- nalism, in which none of the premises privileges and never paid imperial taxes Lvention of the International Association succeeds in overriding the other. to Rome. But empires are not eternal, and for Literary Here, then, is where we meet. after Attila forced Rome to capitulate Journalism Lisbon offers the perfect setting for Lisbon was taken by the Vandals—and Studies. As amazing discoveries, just as it did in the then the Visigoths, and then the Moors in the second times when caravels set sail from its har- 719 AD. Four hundred years later, the most ancient bour in Belém to explore the far reaches capital in of an unknown Earth. Here, too, we hope Europe after that we can chart new ground in the still Rising from the Athens, fairly unexplored realm of literary jour- ashes of the 1755 earthquake, Lisbon has nalism. Lisbon was been the Located at the mouth of the source of river Tejo (Tagus), Lisbon, like Rome, is rebuilt as an enirely HOST inspiration set on seven hills. A myth says they are new city for poets (e.g. the seven pieces that were left of a mon- COMMITTEE Byron), trav- ster killed by Ulysses when he disem- ellers (Henry barked on the calm bay of what came to Fielding), film be known as Olissipo, or city of Ulysses. directors (Wim Wenders), philosophers Legends aside, Lisbon was founded by first Portuguese king, Dom Afonso (Voltaire), novelists (Atoni Munoz the Phoenicians, who used its harbour as Henriques, brought the city back to Molina) and, yes, even literary journal- a trading post for the rest of Iberia. The Christendom, and it became the capital of ists such as our very own Eça de local Celts intermarried with the Portugal in 1255, a position it has held Queirós. In fact, this age-old white city Phoenicians, and when Carthage fell ever since. has always impressed those who venture Lisbon and its inhabitants became part of In the Age of the Discoveries, the expeditions of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral left the shores of Lisbon in the hope of finding the elusive kingdom of Prester John. What they found, of course, was far more important: the mar- itime route to India and a New World in Brazil. Lisbon became the centre of the known universe and the most prosperous city of the time. But the dream was short- lived, and the city was destroyed by a violent earthquake and an ensuing tsuna- mi in 1755. Rising from its ashes, Lisbon was rebuilt in an entirely new (and quakeproof) fashion. The magnificent Baixa Pombalina with its large avenues and the imposing Praça do Comércio overlooking the Tejo testify today to the resilience of the city’s citizens. Such a rich and ancient history
THE PEOPLE OF LISBON OFTEN LOVE EATING AL FRESCO, AND MANY OCCASIONS ARE CELEBERATED WITH OUTDOOR FEASTS.
Continued on next page
PAGE 4 LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
Continued from previous page from Asia to Africa and Brazil: the Praça Tejo and the futuristic train station by do Império with the monumental Santiago Calatrava. has left its imprint on 21st century Lisbon. Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (a UNESCO And if all of this is not It is a modern metropolis and the second world patrimony site), the Monument to enough to characterise Lisbon, we most important financial and economic the Discoveries and the emblematic Torre might mention the incredible ethereal centre of the Iberian Peninsula. Climbing de Belém. In contrast, the eastern part of white light, the gastronomy with its to Castelo de São Jorge, however, one can the city symbolises the capital that hosted delicious pastry (pastéis de Belém are travel in time. Behold the breathtaking Expo 98 with its modern buildings, the a must) and the ever fresh fish (char- view over the whole of Lisbon, the Tejo, impressive Vasco da Gama bridge over the coal grilled, preferably) accompanied and the lands beyond the river. by the excellent Portuguese wines. In the westernmost part of ABOVE LEFT, THE DRAMATIC ARCO DA RUA AUGUSTA And, of course, there is Lisboa one finds the capital of a great and AT NIGHT. RIGHT, A MONUMENT TO PORTUGAL’S AGE always the welcoming spirit of OF DISCOVERY. BELOW, THE PALMY SKYLINE AT DAWN. o proud overseas empire that stretched Lisboans. Benvindos a Lisboa!
LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 PAGE 5 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
CALL FOR PAPERS THE 2008 IALJS CONFERENCE A new theme and a call for papers, works-in-progress and panel proposals
CALL FOR PAPERS papers are certainly welcome. Endnotes and biblio- subject. The description should be approximately 250 International Association for Literary Journalism graphic citations should follow the Chicago Manual of words in length; Studies Style. Papers may not be simultaneously submitted to (c) Panels are encouraged on any topic relat- any other conferences. Papers previously published, ed to the study, teaching or practice of literary journalism; “Literary Journalism: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy” presented, accepted or under review are ineligible. (d) SPECIAL NOTE: A panel on the subject, The Third International Conference for Literary Only one paper per author will be accepted for presen- "Representation and Mediation in the Texts of Literary Journalism Studies tation in the conference’s research sessions, and at Journalists," is already under consideration. Anyone inter- least one author for each paper must be at the con- ested in participating as a panelist is invited to contact the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas vention in order to present the paper. If accepted, each Conference Program Chair (e-mail address below). Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (TU-Lisbon) paper presenter at a conference Research Session may be allotted no more than 15 minutes. To be con- IV. Evaluation Criteria, Deadlines and Contact Information Lisbon, Portugal sidered, please observe the following guidelines: 15-17 May 2008 (a) Submission by e-mail attachment is All research paper submissions will be evaluated on origi- required, in either an MS Word or Adobe PDF format. nality and importance of topic; literature review; clarity of The International Association for Literary Journalism No faxes or postal mail submissions will be accepted; research purpose; focus; use of original and primary Studies invites submissions of original research (b) Please include one title page contain- sources and how they support the paper’s purpose and papers, abstracts for research in progress and propos- ing title, author/s, affiliation/s, and the address, phone, conclusions; writing quality and organization; and the als for panels on Literary Journalism for the IALJS fax, and e-mail of the lead author; degree to which the paper contributes to the study of liter- annual convention on 15-17 May 2008. The confer- (c) Also include a second title page con- ary journalism. Similarly, abstracts of works-in-progress ence will be held at the Instituto Superior de Ciências taining only the paper’s title and the paper’s abstract. and panel proposals will be evaluated on the degree to Sociais e Políticas at the Universidade Técnica de The abstract should be approximately 250 words in which they contribute to the study of literary journalism. Lisboa (TULisbon), Lisbon, Portugal. length; Submissions from students as well as faculty are encour- (d) Your name and affiliation should not aged. The conference hopes to be a forum for scholarly work appear anywhere in the paper [this information will of both breadth and depth in the field of literary jour- only appear on the first title page; see (b) above]. nalism, and all research methodologies are welcome, Please submit research papers or abstracts of as are research on all aspects of literary journalism II. Guidelines for Poster/Work-in-Progress poster/works-in-progress presentations to: and/or literary reportage. For the purpose of scholarly Presentations (Abstracts) Prof. Alice Trindade delineation, our definition of literary journalism is "jour- Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal) nalism as literature" rather than "journalism about lit- Submitted abstracts for Poster/Work-in-Progress 2008 Conference Research Chair, IALJS erature." The association especially hopes to receive Sessions should not exceed 250 words. If accepted, E-mail:
PAGE 6 LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
IALJS Membership Form
Please fill out form and return (by mail, fax or e-mail attachment) with dues payment to address below.
Your name ______Title (Dr., Prof., Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss) ______
University/School/Department ______
Current home address (street number, city, state/province, country) ______
______
Phone (include intl. code) Home ______Work ______Cell ______
Fax phone ______E-mail address ______
Area(s) of teaching/research interest ______
Membership Categories: Members receive all IALJS announcements, including information about conferences, IALJS Newsletter, and the IALJS journal, Literary Journalism Studies.
Please check category: _____ US$ 40 or 30 Euros: Regular Member (Faculty member) _____ US$ 40 or 30 Euros: Associate Member (Professional member) _____ US$ 15 or 10 Euros: Student Member (Master or Doctoral level) _____ US$ 15 or 10 Euros: Retired Faculty Member _____ US$100 or 70 Euros: Sponsoring Member (to support the IALJS general operating fund)
Please Note: Because your IALJS membership dues are apportioned to various publication accounts, as well as for operating expenses, the U.S. Postal Service requires that you sign off on this procedure. Please sign below.
Signature ______Date ______
PAYMENT METHODS: Check or Wire Transfer
1. Make Check Payable, in U.S. Funds only, to IALJS.
Please mail check with completed form to:
Bill Reynolds, IALJS Treasurer School of Journalism, Ryerson University 350 Victoria Street Toronto, Ontario CANADA M5B 2K3
2(a). Wire Transfer (Outside U.S.) From your bank, send wire transfer, using Swift Code #CHASUS22, to IALJS account #705981314. Please notify the treasurer by email, [email protected], with date of wire transfer and federal wire number.
2(b). Wire Transfer (U.S.) From your bank, send wire transfer, using Routing #071000013, to IALJS account #705981314. Please notify the treasurer by email, [email protected], with date of wire transfer and federal wire number.
PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, the IALJS cannot accept payment by credit card at this time.
LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 PAGE 7 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
A number of our READING colleagues in the discipline LITERARY JOURNALISM IN NORWAY LIST have particular From oil to books. favorites in the broad canon of literary journalism that By Susan Greenberg, Roehampton (U.K.) they have found to have special mean- embers of the IALJS already take The NFF awards grants to writers ing both in and out of the classroom. worth more than 50 million Norwegian Their nominees are the books and/or nonfiction writing very seriously. kroner per year (approx $9.5 million). articles they find uniquely useful exam- How many of us live in a country Around a third of that goes to fund travel, ples of the craft. We asked a few for where nonfiction writing has its own nation- their choices, and, for your reading Mal organization, able to fund writerly and the rest is given out for larger projects. pleasure and possible classroom use, research, publication and international coop- Successful candidates (about half of all the results follow. eration? applicants) get around NOK22,000 ($4,170) At the tail-end of summer 2007, I per month for up to a year, to complete a • R. Thomas Berner (Pennsylvania packed my bags for a four-day visit to nonfiction book. In 2007, 291 writers were State, U.S.A.) recommends “Final Norway at the invitation of University awarded a grant, and to date, more than Salute" by Jim Sheeler of the Rocky College Vestfold, just south of Oslo. The uni- 3,300 books have been published as a result Mountain News, which he terms "a versity recently launched a new Master of of this support. tour de force [and] compelling narra- Arts program in The organization has a journal tive nonfiction.” Indeed, one of Nonfiction called Prosa, and it supports a new chair at Berner's students commented that the Writing, and I was the University of Oslo, currently held by Sheeler is the “kind of reporter that all invited to give a Dr. Johan L. Tonnesson, who is a professor of us want to be.” lecture. While of what is called "Sakprose." NFF’s general • Richard Keeble (University of Lincoln, making the U.K.) suggests the journalism of arrangements, I Arundhati Roy's nonfiction collection, learned the trip The Ordinary Person's Guide to was being funded The association Empire, as well as John Pilger's Tell by a Norwegian funds a Me No Lies—both of which “combine organization University of Oslo bravery, political passion and elegant called the Norsk writing.” chair in Faglitterær • Jacqueline Marino (Kent State, Forfatter-Og what is called “Sakprose” U.S.A.) nominates “The Boy Who Loved CONFERENCE Oversetterforening Transit” by Jeff Tietz in the May 2002 (NFF), which issue of Harper’s Magazine, for the NOTES translates into the way the author “weaves his observa- Norwegian Non- secretary, Trond Andreassen, was until very tions, shoe-leather reportage and the Fiction Writers and Translators Association. I recently the president of the European subject's own writings into a moving Writers’ Congress. narrative.” confess that my first thought was: Who knew? The combination of circumstances The NFF was created 30 years ago, that led to the growth of the NFF is perhaps largely out of the sense of injustice felt by a an unusual one. So far—please correct me if REPORT FROM THE nonfiction writer, about the exclusion of non- this is wrong—I know of no similar organi- fiction from public monies made available zation other than the American Society of AsIALJS of 1 December TREASURER 2007, Treasurer Bill from Public Lending Rights. It now has 5,000 Journalists and Authors (ASJA), a 1,000- Reynolds reports that the financial cir- members, a notable number in a country member professional association of nonfic- cumstances of our association are as fol- with a total population of just 4.6 million. tion magazine and book writers in the U.S. o lows: The total balance in our treasury as It ensures that nonfiction writers of But it certainly does give one ideas. of this report is $2,223.31. The associa- all kinds (from literary nonfiction to text- tion currently has 39 paid-in-full mem- books) benefit from the state largesse made bers. In addition, nine other colleagues possible by the country's oil wealth, a tradi- NFF-RELATED WEB SITES have indicated that they are interested in tion of state welfare and the impulse of a As with any organization these days, the NFF has a membership, but their dues are still smaller nation to protect a minority lan- number of related web sites. For those who might be pending. Please note: For all members, guage. Norway operates a system of state interested, a brief list follows. (Caveat: As far as we’ve been able to determine, Prosa has no English link.) the 2008 IALJS membership fees are due purchase orders, buying a thousand copies of http://www.nffo.no/english.htm 1 January 2008 (if needed, see page 7 more than 200 Norwegian-language fiction http://www.prosa.no/ for the assoication’s membership form). titles every year. Now, after pressure from http://www.european-writers-congress.org the NFF, it does the same for nonfiction. /
PAGE 8 LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
THE WRITER’S CHOICE Truth may be many things, but it is not nothing. By Walt Harrington, Illinois (U.S.A.)
nce upon a time I knew a old Alaskan villager killing himself by walking out into the young woman who was smart frozen Arctic was a fake. In book publishing the examples and beautiful, talented and are nearly endless, depending on how you define "fake." hardworking. She reported well and Binjamin Wilkomirski's 1995 memoir, Fragments, in which Owrote gracefully. She was, like every- Wilkomirski, as a child, watched his mother die in a Nazi body I knew in those years, ragingly concentration camp. Too bad he was actually Bruno ambitious. On the day that this Grosjean, a Christian raised in foster homes in Switzerland. promising and engaging woman— The "rounding" of the "corners" to which author John Janet Cooke—would be forever ban- Berendt admitted after the publication of his nonfiction best- ished from the Washington Post and seller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a Pulitzer final- American journalism for having made ist. In a strangely unconvincing defense, Berendt said, "This 1 GUEST up her Pulitzer Prize-winning story is not hard-nosed reporting, because clearly I made it up." ESSAY about an eight-year-old heroin addict, I Faking it for art's sake has a long tradition: Truman came to the Post newsroom early in the Capote's made-up scenes for In Cold Blood; John Hersey's morning. The place was nearly empty then-unacknowledged creation of a single character carved when I sat down at Janet's desk to do what any aspiring literary from the lives of many World War II vets in his famous 1944 journalist should do—report. I took out a pad and began jotting Life magazine piece, "Joe Is Home Now"; George Orwell's notes on what was before me: recreation of multiple events as a single scene in The Road to • A bottle of pink Maalox. Wigan Pier. And, let's be honest, newspapers of the 19th and • A snippet from a Jackson Browne song: "Nobody rides 20th centuries that were famous for never letting the facts for free . . . nobody gives you any sympathy . . . nobody gets it like get in the way of a good story. they want it to be . . . nobody, baby." Finally, perhaps most frightening, • These words: "There is no thera- the rise of the personal memoir as a py for whatever ails a good reporter like the profitable book form in the last 20 years challenge of an impossible assignment"—with As reporters has fostered some of the most bizarre, "impossible assignment" underlined. and writers we must through-the-looking-glass logic about • And this aphorism: "Some people resist our what is and isn't truth in what's loosely know what they want long before they can darker angels and not fall called nonfiction. Frank McCourt have it." remembering dialogue as a toddler in As I had expected, at 12:24 p.m. on to temptation Angela's Ashes. Vivian Gornick April 16, 1981—I know the time and the day acknowledging that scenes with her because I also jotted them in my notes—two mother, described with absolute realism burly men arrived at Janet Cooke's desk, in her much-praised memoir Fierce cleaned its top and its contents into card- Attachments, didn't take place, and that board boxes, and rolled them away on a metal dolly. The infamous a conversation her mother had with a street person in New Janet Cooke was gone. York didn't happen—but that's okay because Gornick knew Well, not exactly. what her mother would have said to that street person if she You are living with her ghost—and her descendants and had run into him. Dave Barry, I'm not making this up! ancestors in fakery. Jayson Blair of the New York Times, a most Now you probably expect me to rant with moral astonishingly brazen faker known to all of you because his crimes indignation against the fakers and hoaxers and the grand are recent and led not only to his downfall but to the sad downfall thinkers who argue with a straight face that fact and fiction of Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd, Numbers 1 and 2 at the Times. are indistinguishable and, therefore, any effort to mark their Stephen Glass of the New Republic, who five years ago was caught boundaries is itself a fiction, a fraud, a fake. making up not only quotes and scenic details but entire human Not gonna do it. beings, businesses, legislation, even products—a Monica Lewinsky Because the battle against the aggressive fakers— inflatable doll that recited Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." That the Janet Cookes, Stephen Glasses, Michael Finkels and took fakery and creativity. Michael Finkel, who invented a West Jayson Blairs—is hardly worth our time. They are liars who African teenage slave for the pages of the New York Times Magazine. lie to get ahead. They lie out of weakness and fear because Patricia Smith and Mike Barnacle, fallen columnists of the Boston they know what they want before they've earned the right to Globe. have it. They want fame and glory, and they want it early In the scholarly world—the Journal of the American Medical Association admitted that med student Shetal Shah's account of an Continued on next page
LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 PAGE 9 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
WRITER’S Continued from previous page
and often and easy. We can understand with diligence. We know how to toughen excuse, I believe, to make up whatever such people. They are old-fashioned peo- our standards. We understand lying for you want because who will know? ple. They lack character. Of course, there gain. But the sweeping societal drift of • The respected publishing are still lessons for us. our thinking about what is and is not a lawyer who says you can pretty much Simply put, as reporters and fact is a tougher nut. Consider the follow- make up what you want as long as you writers we must resist our darker angels, ing examples: put a little disclaimer in the front of your not fall to temptation. Get old-time reli- • Reality tv shows that are not book saying that some facts and details gion. Remember that recognition and reality at all. have been changed for dramatic purpos- respect should come to people for their • Respected biographer Edmund es. The memoir writer Augusten achievements and that real achievements Morris making himself a fictional charac- Burroughs included the following note in are hard-earned. A journalism student of ter in Dutch, an otherwise conventional his book Dry, "Certain episodes are imagi- mine a few years into the work world biography of Ronald Reagan, in pursuit, native re-creations, and those episodes are once told me that the most inspiring he said, of his art. not intended to portray actual events," to thing I had ever said to him was that I'd • Teachers of "creative nonfic- which the Washington Post book critic never written anything worth remember- tion" who argue that fine nonfiction writ- Jonathan Yardley responded, "There is a 2 ing in the first ten years of my career. ers don't seek a shabby thing called "liter- word for that: fiction." The truth is, people are weak al truth" but the higher-minded "essence • Compare Burroughs's view of and flawed, and some percentage of of truth." So combining disparate scenes veracity with that of the revered historian them—of you out there today—will isn't lying but "composing" in pursuit of John Hope Franklin, who once told the cheat. Look to your left and to your literature. Washington Post's Linton Weeks that he right. Nope, you can't tell which of you had been at the Library of Congress are the cheaters. Not by the cut of your checking his memories against documen- suit or the width of your smile or the To a certain tary facts as research for his autobiogra- style of your hair. But cheaters live phy. Franklin told Weeks he had remem- among us. If you are one of them, stop it. crowd—probably most of you bered hearing George Gershwin's orches- Perhaps you have only a small chance of reading this—the tra play "Rhapsody in Blue" at a concert in getting caught, but when you are caught, debate of accuracy is a 1928 but that old newspaper accounts had it will be 100 percent. And you will not bit comical proved his memory wrong—the actual get Jayson Blair's six-figure book deal. work was "Concerto in F." Weeks asked He took down the editors of the New Franklin what he thought about books York Times. You will take down the editor written solely on memory. Franklin's of the Fort Worth Weekly. You will just be answer was simple: "I couldn't do that." gone. • The journalist who began The lesson for editors? teaching nonfiction to bright Ivy League In a certain crowd—probably most of you Interrogate even your most trusted students and was shocked at how uncon- here today—this debate over accuracy is reporters. Follow the old adage of inves- cerned they were about, say, whether a comical. You, as journalists, are shabby lit- tigative reporting: Assume the best and person's hair color was correctly remem- eralists—and proud of it! Yet we can't let look for the worst. Anyone who resents bered as blond or brown. "What does it it go at that, because the people who that interrogation has something to hide matter?" they asked. think this way are not dumb. They are not or is too immature to realize what's at • The respected, brilliant book all self-serving and greedy. They have stake. And what's at stake is your credi- editor who argues that taking notes or been born and bred in a time when we bility, your paper's credibility, and jour- using a tape recorder actually undermines have come to question everything that we nalism's credibility. Ultimately, if the accuracy by making people change their think we know. In a time when we under- weight of all the lies becomes too great behavior, therefore it's more accurate to stand that, as Akira Kurosawa made us and society becomes too cynical about report only from memory. see in his 1950 movie Rashomon, that our work, our freedom to make honest • The respected, brilliant book where one stands while observing an mistakes without fear of going to jail or editor who says that if something hap- event deeply shapes what one sees. What being sued into the poorhouse—the real pened recently in a person's life but it bet- assumptions and biases we bring to bear roots of our "free press"—is at stake, too. ter serves the story by happening 20 years matter. When you hype a quote, fake a source, earlier, it's fine to change that particular We now know that memories are pipe a scene, you aren't committing an event because the alteration is in service malleable and shifting over time, as we individual act. You are committing a to the narrative—to the essence of the re-remember our pasts to fit our presents. social act. You are ripping a small tear in truth, I suppose. We do not necessarily shape-shift our the contract of trust that Americans • The respected, brilliant book memory out of malice or self-interest. It's indulgently grant the press. editor who tells a writer he should never just what we as humans do to make sense Yet, as I said, that's the easy fabricate anything but instead "trust" the stuff. We can attack the militant liars accuracy of his memory—a thinly veiled Continued on next page
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WRITER’S Continued from previous page of ourselves in our worlds. We have rightly thousand people killed in a mud slide is National Writers Workshop confer- been made thoughtful and sensitive about not a "tale." It is mud-clogged lungs ences held around the country, I've the multiplicity of perspectives and the choking for air, crushed bones and found myself asking speakers and par- watery quality of memory. We are better off skulls, unimaginable pain. It is dead ticipants if they have ever felt under for thinking this way, better knowing that mothers encased in muck clinging to pressure to make their reporting con- much of what we believe we believe, what their children. That mud slide—and the form to the needs of dramatic story- we believe we have seen and heard and world of stone and flower and blood—is telling. Many of them do. H. G. experienced, is not shared even by others a thing. Do not doubt it. Truth is a docu- Bissinger, the author of the scrupu- who lived the same experiences. Yet when mentary, physical reality—as well as the lously nonfiction books Friday Night we extend that insight to say that "facts" do meaning we make of that reality, the per- Lights and A Prayer for the City, said a not matter because all is perception, we enter ceptions we have of it. It's not one or the few years ago, "More and more, the dangerous territory. I think of a time a group other. It's both, entwined. We cannot public expects nonfiction books to of journalism graduate students I knew were know the "essence of truth" if we are [. . .] have that perfect, seamless story- being lectured by a philosopher arguing cavalier about "literal truth." telling quality. That's an impossibly many of these points. That belief must be what high bar [. . .] If you're trying to get it "But what about the truth?" a stu- defines us as journalists, and our credo right, you really do suffer with the dent asked. must be: When accuracy and art conflict, facts you have. Believe me, I went "Truth?" the philosopher said confi- accuracy wins. through a lot of days of depression dently. "After all, what is truth?" All this debate is deeply rele- and self-doubt, but one thing I was 4 That cowed the students into vant to those of us who champion what not going to do is make it up." But silence. has come to be called "narrative journal- the pressure to have the perfect Well, truth was at least the table at story—facts be damned—is increas- which they sat. Truth was at least that you ingly real. could rap it with your knuckles and sound The presssure I once listened to a group of waves would shoot through the room and to have a perfect story, true crime writers talk about how they sensation would rocket through your hand. facts be select book topics. Other than the com- Truth was at least that the rectangular shape damned, is increasingly mercial pressure to write about rich of the table distributed the students in a murdered people, they were over- defined manner. Truth was at least that the real whelmingly concerned about finding a table was made of a certain kind of wood strong narrative story line, a hero, and that came from a certain kind of tree in the a redemptive ending. In other words, forest. Truth was at least that a craftsman the needs of the storytelling form—not had taken that rough chunk of wood and, a story's social significance—were through the creativity of his mind and the ism"—what has been variously called dominating the stories they chose to mastery of his hand, sawed and shaved and "new journalism," "literary journalism," tell. I fear that, as literary or narrative sanded and finished it into a table. Truth and "intimate journalism." You know the journalism has come to be seen as an was at least that beneath its solid existence drill—stories rooted in immersion outgrowth of fictional literary devices lived millions of dancing molecules. reporting; that move through time; that make stories more compelling, we Truth may be many things—but it develop character; use real-life action, have forgotten that we are not only is not nothing at all. scene, dialogue, and detail to bring them "storytellers" but the "tellers of sto- When a tree falls in the woods and to life; that have a narrative story arc ries." We have allowed literary device nobody hears it, it still makes noise. Words and that aim to feel like short fiction— and framing to become ends in them- spoken were spoken whether or not we can what two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Jon selves. reconstruct them correctly. Events occurred Franklin has called the "true short story." The power inherent in novel- in a certain sequence whether or not we can An approach that for 35 years now has istic storytelling is not only the power discern it. A man scratched his head after consciously borrowed the devices of the of plot and character and scene. speaking certain words and did not scratch novel. We can't pretend away that some Certainly it's true that drama, intrigue his head after speaking other words. It was of our craft's famous liars were reaching and tension hold readers. That's good raining or it was not. for this form of journalism. Janet Cooke in itself. But the elements of story are I love the novels of Cormac was, in newspaper parlance, a "feature not only tricks but tools of inquiry, McCarthy, who writes: "this world [. . .] writer." devices that direct our vision to the which seems to us a thing of stone and It's not a discussion we should many nuances of real life. There's a flower and blood is not a thing at all but is a duck. Because being clear about the reason we still read Robert Penn 3 tale [. . .] All is telling. Do not doubt it." place and purpose of literary device ver- Warren's book, All the King's Men. It Well, if we are interested in human meaning, sus the place and purpose of documen- isn't only because Warren can turn a then what objects mean to us always mat- tary reality in our work needs serious ters. But life as people live it is not a "tale." A conversation. In the last few years at the Continued on next page
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WRITER’S Continued from previous page nice phrase and because the book's plot is reporter-writers went out to do the same about the difference. You learn that get- compelling and its characters fascinating. story, they would never tell as uniquely ting his name wrong reveals a dangerous It's a brilliant novel because it captures insightful a tale. tendency in you: You are assuming you the depth and breadth of human experi- I suspect that most of these mas- know what you don't know. Reporting at ence—passion, greed, decency, selfish- ters thought of what they were doing not the grass roots teaches you how many ness. It portrays Depression-era Louisiana only as art but also as popular ethnogra- unconscious assumptions you make politics in ways that ring true. And it does phy. They are people who consciously (as about everything, how difficult it is sim- so by evoking the richness of lives and in the case of Susan Sheehan who was ply to describe what we believe to be in culture through not only intellect but influenced by Oscar Lewis) or uncon- front of us, and how little we know with through emotion and sensory experi- sciously borrowed the mindset of the confidence about anything—the spelling ence—through the full array of human ethnographer who wants to understand, of a name, the genus of a plant, the type experience. describe and explain worlds foreign to of clouds billowing overhead, the exact The novelist's eye for detail and him in their own terms while evoking, as make and model of a certain car, the dif- attention to moral complexity is not just a documentary writers said as far back as ference between baby blue and delft blue. bag of techniques. It is a way of seeing, a the 1930s, the "feeling of a living experi- And those are the easy challenges. The kind of theory of human behavior. When ence." That, too, is part of our tradition. hard challenges are knowing what people we inquire with what we think of as the As journalist Pete Hamill once said, mean when they say things, what their needs of storytelling embedded in our "Writers are rememberers or nothing. gestures and expressions mean, what the search, we are actually attuning ourselves That's why the tribe gives us that job." objects arrayed in their homes mean to beforehand to that human richness so We aren't trying only to tell a good story. them. often missing in our journalism. When We're trying to chronicle and illuminate Fine literary journalists are used properly, the novelist's eye opens the world, take readers into the lives of always masters of their craft, as are all our eyes and heads and hearts to the masters of their forms. The famous jazz breadth of what we can and should be musician Charlie Parker, who when looking for in our reporting. It doesn't The key is to asked how he had gotten so good, sup- take us away from the truth, as some tra- get our tools honed to such posedly answered that he had practiced ditional journalists fear. It helps us better an extent that the his musical scales every day, all day for see and hear and touch and feel the truth tools do the job without too 10 years and then forgotten them. A fine before us. furniture maker I knew said it took years But that powerful lens must be much thought to learn to cut tight dovetail joints per- coupled with journalism's twin commit- fectly without having to think about the ment to documentary reality—a table is a work intensely. When he had mastered it, table. The early New Journalists who though, when it became second nature to came out of journalism as opposed to fic- him, he could spend his hours of cutting tion shared this commitment—Tom Wolfe people they would never meet, write sto- joints thinking about the larger matters of and Gay Talese. The New Yorker writers ries that are mirrors in which readers can design and artistry. Esquire writer Mike Lillian Ross, John McPhee, Susan glimpse a piece of unexpected humanity Sager, a fine literary journalist who came Sheehan, and Tracy Kidder have never in others and, perhaps, even in them- out of the Washington Post, says this of been accused of playing loosely with the selves. If you do not have this deep com- our craft: "The key is to get your tools facts. Nor have the younger generation of mitment, it will be far easier for you to honed to such an extent that the tools do journalistically-bred literary journalists— fall prey to making it up. their job without too much thought. Then the Washington Post's David Finkel, Sports This is hard work. It's not a your head is freed to do its job. Master Illustrated's Gary Smith, the Oregonian's fluke that old newspaper union require- technique, and then listen to your 5 Tom Hallman, the New Yorker's Susan ments used to define a journeyman heart." Orlean; book authors such as Bissinger, reporter as someone with seven years of I've always been intrigued by Richard Ben Cramer, and David Maraniss. experience. That's because you learn what philosophers call "tacit knowledge," These men and women are artists not something in those years of covering which is knowledge so ingrained that we because they make stuff up but because, fires, murders, airplane crashes, town no longer know how we came to know when unraveling the lives of others, they carnivals and cats stuck up in trees. You it—the way we learn to walk and then imbue their inquiries and stories with learn first that although philosophers can take mobility for granted, the way we their own constellation of experiences, argue that all reality is socially construct- learn to talk and then take language for values, intelligence, and commanding ed, in the flesh-and-blood world people granted. Perhaps it's no accident that so philosophical questions to unlock the sto- have a very clear idea of truth and accu- many of the unmasked liars in our craft ries within the people they are writing racy. were young. They wanted to be the about. What distinguishes a literary jour- John Smyth, with a y, doesn't Charlie Parker of journalism before they nalist-artisan from a literary journalist- spell his name the same way as John artist is that if one or a thousand other Smith, with an i—and he actually cares Continued on next page
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WRITER’S Continued from previous page had mastered their scales, before their you even begin to write—rendering pups lost to marauding coyotes, they knowledge had become tacit. scenes, selecting telling details, avoiding actually talked about these things So much to learn: How to spell melodrama, shaping material without then—not later, not before. When I say names, yes. But we also learn to take noth- distorting it, aptly balancing the particu- the sky was stacked with cloud ing at face value, to check and recheck lar and the universal, imposing themes plateaus on the eastern horizon, it everything. As the old journalism adage rightfully rooted in your reporting, struc- was. I know because I carried a com- goes: "You say your mother loves you— turing stories so insight emerges, action pass on my watchband. When I check it out." We learn that there is often a concludes, characters change and tension describe what the innards of a rabbit difference between what people remember is relieved. Seven years is not so long a look like as I am cleaning the dead and what actually happened, and we time to learn all of this. But if it were animal with my knife, I have been believe—true to our documentary heritage— easy, everybody would be Tom Wolfe or through a necropsy of a rabbit with that the difference matters, that it is often Susan Orlean or David Finkel. They two veterinarian students who anno- revelatory. We learn that it is almost impossi- aren't. And most of us never will be. How tated a rabbit's plumbing for me. ble to write anything that makes everybody do you live with that? Do you fake your When I write that the spring you write about happy. We learn to take crit- way? water is 51 degrees, I have measured it icism as a daily diet. We learn, sadly, that In the end—you can't escape it— with a thermometer. When I write that our critics are too often correct—that we it's a matter of character. on a visit to the White House, I sipped were wrong. We learn that we have power, I teach a class in personal jour- La Crema Reserve Chardonnay and that people we write about call us on the nalism. And just last week I was going ate smoked salmon mousse, I have phone and cry or run into us at the super- through passages in my most recent checked old White House records market and turn away. We learn that their book, The Everlasting Stream, a chronicle through the Bush Presidential Library. daughters go to school with our daughters. of my years of rabbit hunting with my When I write that a series of moun- We learn that we can hurt people's reputa- tains in the Kentucky countryside rise tions in the eyes of not only their communi- 700, 800 and 900 feet, I have checked ty but in the eyes of their children. We learn The hard those elevations on soil conservation that people call our bosses and try to get us work is hidden. Only maps. When I write that I remember fired, that they hire lawyers and sue us for the reporter my father and myself, as a boy, riding millions of dollars, and that judges don't really knows what in the car one night singing "The Red have an intellectual's view of the relativity of River Valley" as we drove through the facts. We become paranoid about never it took dip in Ashland Road just past Virgil being found indisputably wrong and to take Gray's house, I have relied on my every detail, word, quote and conclusion as memory of that night and the song but seriously as death. checked with my father to learn that it We learn that the complicated was Virgil Gray who lived in the worlds we enter are next to impossible to father-in-law and his Kentucky country house. Then I drove two hours to visit recreate in words. It is humbling and exhila- friends. I was trying to help my students Ashland Road to make sure there real- rating to realize this. It sets off a lifelong understand how paragraphs that read ly was a dip in the road just past journey to figure out how to turn those omnisciently were actually sourced. I said Virgil's home. There was. thousands of pieces of life and shards of per- that when I write that the wind was gust- My students were quiet when ception into stories that are true to the docu- ing at 30 miles an hour, I had gotten the I stopped giving examples. Then one mentary facts, as they also evoke people's National Weather Service reports for that young woman asked incredulously, subjective experiences in ways that are accu- day. When I write that there was a wax- "Do other journalists do that, too?" rate to them, that make perfect strangers ing crescent moon in the sky, I had an Well, yes. Think of Paul want to read on, and that, ideally, teach astronomer calculate what kind of moon Hendrickson's chapter, "Ode to an those strangers something important about was in the sky on that date. When I write Instrument," in his Critics Book Circle themselves. We ask strange questions others that the green briar bushes have been Award-finalist book, Looking for the would never think to ask because we know munched by deer, I had taken a naturalist Light, about the life of Depression-era the answers are necessary to create the flow, into the field to confirm this for me. Rain documentary photographer Marion sensory texture, and physical atmospherics really was falling because I noted it on Post Wolcott. It describes the old of our stories: What did the dying woman's my pad or into my tape recorder. When I Speed Graphic camera that Wolcott room smell like? What does the icy wind feel say the men and I lit up and smoked used. It's an artful chapter. But it's the like on the priest's face? What color was the Arturo Fuente Curly Head Deluxe in-artful substructure—the reporting— old Chevy you used to drive? What was the Maduro cigars, we really smoked that that Hendrickson leaves out that taste of your mother's spaghetti sauce? What brand of cigar, at that moment, in that makes the artful possible. What he did the gunshot that killed your son sound place. When I write that the men stood in doesn't mention is that he went to the like in the small room? And this is before the woods and talked about chicken hawks, Carl's old .22 rifle and beagle Continued on next page
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WRITER’S Continued from previous page THE PURPOSE OF PUBLICATION Three members discuss what motivates them to study literary journalism. Smithsonian Institution and got copies of the original catalogues and publicity By Bill Reynolds, Ryerson (Canada) literature on the Speed Graphic. Then he bought an old Speed Graphic so he s promised last issue, this column the realm of artistic journalism. Suddenly, I could examine it, hold it, run through returns and dedicates itself to the connected her work with that of the its complicated mechanical routine, informal explication of the work Chicago writers of the 1890s and decided hear its clicks and whirs. Then he of three scholars in our literary journal- that, perhaps, this kind of journalism had found an old photographer who had Aism community—all of whom have a longer history and tradition than people used a Speed Graphic in his youth. recently had their good work published. assumed.” Watching and hearing the man talk Here, I should reiterate, is our opportuni- Sims continues: “In my new book about the camera with awe and ty to stop and I make an effort to trace American literary respect, Hendrickson told me later, catch up with journalism’s origins into the 19th century, was "like poetry." Yet none of this labo- the intellectual and then to move forward in time using a rious reporting is in his chapter. The goings on of set of linked profiles of writers, some of hard work is hidden. Only the reporter some of our fel- whom were American expatriots writing knows what it took. To the reader, it all low members. from Europe. For the past 25 years, I’ve looks easy. It's not, although it is easy So please make been interviewing literary journalists, and to fake. yourself com- those interviews form the core of my mate- And that's why—at the end of fortable and rial on contemporary writers.” the day—it's your choice. enjoy, in the Sims includes five excerpts from In what do you believe? To informal set- Michael Paterniti, John Dos Passos, what are you committed? ting of your Edmund Wilson, Joseph Mitchell and o RESEARCH It really is your choice. choice, some Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, in addition to an PERSPECTIVES stimualating extensive historical bibliography presented (SECOND IN A SERIES) thoughts from as an appendix. “I’m hoping that this NOTES colleagues on package will not only be of interest to This article, in a slightly altered form, was the keynote what drives us readers,” he says, “but will make it easier address at the Association of Alternative to study literary journalism—and just a for professors to offer instruction on the Newsweeklies/Medill Alternative Journalism Writing little bit about what makes them tick. genre of literary journalism.” Workshop at Northwestern University. As for what motivates Sims to 1. Doreen Carvajal, "The Truth Is Under Pressure in Norman Sims’s Century of continue researching in the field of literary Publishing," The New York Times, February 24, 1998, BI. Literary Journalism journalism, he says he is fascinated by the 2. Terry Greene Sterling, "Confessions of a Memorist," August 1, 2003, True Stories: A Century of Literary way in which “writers pass along their tra- http://www.salon.com/books/feature/archives/2003/08/01 Journalism, a new book by Norman Sims ditions and feelings almost as if the world /gornick/index1.html. (Massachusetts-Amherst, U.S.A.) was were an oral culture. 3. Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing (New York: Alfred A. published just last month by “I’ve had the experience of walk- Knopf, 1994), 143. Northwestern University Press. Sims, ing into contemporary literary journalist 4. Carvajal, "The Truth is Under Pressure in Publishing," BI. who has compiled three prevous collec- Tracy Kidder’s living room and discover- 5. Walt Harrington, ed., Intimate Journalism: The Art and ing on his bookshelf a rare copy of Nels Craft of Reporting Everyday Life (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage tions of literary journalism, one co-edited Publications, 1997), 243. with Mark Kramer, says he feels like he’s Anderson’s The Hobo from 1923, which been working toward this particular his- Tracy used in researching a work on riding tory for the whole of his scholarly career. the rails. Joseph Mitchell’s books were, for AUTHOR’S BIO “My work on literary journalism decades, passed from hand-to-hand in the Walt Harrington, a staff writer for the Washington Post began in grad school in the 1970s,” says same way. Only in a few colleges and uni- Magazine for nearly 15 years, is the author of five books, Sims, “when I was studying the history of versities can students actually study this including Crossings: A White Man's Journey Into Black stuff. America and The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of two kinds of journalism from Chicago in Rabbits, Guns, Friendship and Family. He is chair of the the 1890s: a scientific and an artistic “Since I think literary journalism Depatment of Journalism at the University of Illionois. model. My dissertation advisor, Dr. James does the best job of representing culture in Carey, was one of the pioneers in a cul- different eras,” Sims concludes, “I feel tural approach to journalism. I made the some responsibility for making its history PERMISSION connection to contemporary journalism available.” Reprinted with author’s kind permission; first published later, when I read an article by Jane
PAGE 14 LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
PUBLICATION Continued from preceeding page
Susan Greenberg Traces Fault Lines in “editing and meaning,” which looks at reports, and indeed any form of Journalism as Academic Field editing as a stage in the creative process. expression, offer an ‘objective’ repre- Officially, Susan Greenberg’s paper, What unites all of Greenberg’s sentation of the world? What is know- “Theory and Practice in Journalism research, she says, is an interest in mak- able as ‘fact’ as opposed to ‘interpreta- Education,” Journal of Media Practice ing what is hidden become more visible. tion’ or ‘opinion,’ a question at the (Volume 8, Issues 2/3, November 2007), “In many ways, professional education, heart of many libel cases?” started life as part of a postgraduate literary journalism and editing all occu- Roberts Forde says she has teaching qualification. But the course just py the same liminal space, because they since moved on to her new research provided an excuse for the Roehampton are about the process, not the product. project—a publication and reading University, London scholar to do some- To champion any of them is to challenge history of social protest journalism thing that felt essential for sheer survival: assumptions,” she concludes, “and that first published in American maga- to trace the main fault lines in journalism means there’s a good deal of ‘mapping’ zines, then in book form. “This writ- as a academic field. and defining to do.” ing is a form of literary journalism “It was a shock entering higher
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A number of IALJS members have inter- PRESIDENT’S LETTER Continued from Page 1 WORK BY esting work that is MEMBERS either recently pub- on hold until the establishment of Literary simultaneously. Whether or not your lished or in press. A Journal Studies. The logic behind the deci- essay is finally accepted for the book modest celebration of their scholarly accom- sion was that a collection of conference project mentioned above, submitting plishments follows. proceedings might possibly reduce the your essay is our agreement that it is Maria Lassila-Merisalo (Jyväskylä, Finland) number of submissions needed from currently not under consideration else- •has an article “Friend or Foe? The Narrator's IALJS members for the first issue of the where. I understand the different acade- Attitude Towards the Main Character in journal. mic traditions in America and in Personality Stories” in a new book, Real Given Routledge’s decision, we Europe, which is why I want to offer all Stories, Imagined Realities: Fictionality and now feel it necessary to finally respond to our colleagues the opportunity to see Non-fictionality Literary Constructs and the needs of IALJS members in seeing their work in print, be it in this collec- Historical Contexts, edited by Markku their work in print. While LJS editor John tion or in LJS. Lehtimäki, Simo Leisti and Marja Rytkönen Hartsock continues his search for a home Finally, IALJS 3 in Lisbon 2008 (Tampere Studies in Language, Translation for the journal (which could take up to is fast approaching. If you have not and Culture, Series A Vol. 3. Tampere: another year and possibly means that the done so already, please submit your Tampere University Press, 97-127.) first volume of LJS will likely appear no research paper or abstract of work-in- Norman Sims (Massachusetts-Amherst, earlier than Winter 2009), I have been progress to Alice Trindade USA)• has a new book entitled True Stories: A looking around for a publisher who ([email protected]) or your panel Century of Literary Journalism, which would be interested in publishing Literary ideas to Susan Greenburg (s.green- appeared in November (Evanston, IL: Journalism Proceedings—the book that [email protected]), respectively, Northwestern University Press, 2007), would collect a selection of revised essays before 31 January 2008. You can still $24.95. attend the convention even if you are Susan Greenberg (Roehampton, UK) has a not planning on speaking. There will be •journal article, "Theory and Practice in other opportunities to participate as Journalism Education,” appearing in the Keep in mind well, such as chairing a session or two. Journal of Media Practice (November 2007). that the early-bird pre-conference Conference co-organizers Alice registration fee Trindade and Isabel Santos are promis- for the Lisbon meeting is due ing a wonderful time for all. Keep in MEMBERSHIP mind that early-bird, pre-conference by 31 March 2008 registration fees are due no later than 31 MembersDUES areFOR reminded—as 2008 gently as March 2008 (you can find the registra- humanly possible but also, we admit, with a tion form inside this issue of the hint of firmness—that your IALJS dues for newsletter or on the IALJS website); late the 2008 calendar year are payable in from IALJS 1 and 2 to be published some- or on-site fees will be somewhat more January 2008. For most members, the dues time next year. I have a few places in expensive. Please note the change in are $40 or 30 Euros, but please refer to the mind and will contact them shortly with this year’s convention: full or part-time detail on page 7 of this newsletter. As a rela- a proposal. As such, interested speakers teachers who may also be enrolled as tively new learned society, prompt payment from both conferences are invited to con- students (such as in a doctoral program) would be sincerely appreciated. tact me by email (john.bak@univ- will no longer be able to benefit from nancy2.fr) for more information about the lowered student rate. Only full-time, this project, including deadlines, word non-working students will be consid- SCHOLARLY JOURNAL counts, style sheets, etc. ered for the reduced student rate. PLANS SPECIAL ISSUE Please be advised that only a IALJS continues to be dynamic The schlolarly journal, ZAA (Zeitschrift fuer selection of the final essays will be pub- in its personal and professional activi- Anglistik und Amerikanistik): A Quarterly of lished, and that acceptance in this book ties and continues to grow in its mem- Language, Literature and Culture, is planning would prohibit you from submitting and bership. To close I would like to formal- a special volume on the "New publishing the same essay in LJS. You are, ly extend my warmest wishes to all our Documentarism" that might be of some of course, invited to submit your research new members, many of whom I hope to interest to IALJS members. The issue will elsewhere to one of the many quality meet in person in Lisbon or in Denmark cover documentary formats across the journals that would likely be interested in in 2008. In joining IALJS, you have not media, and the editor, Christiane Schlote articles on literary journalism; LJS and its only reached out to a group of scholars (University of Berne, Switzerland) is looking editors fully understand the demands of who wholly share your passion for the for transnational contributions. For more academe today and do not want to hin- teaching and the researching of literary information on the journal, please see der anyone’s tenure and promotion pos- journalism across the globe; you have http://www.zaa.koenigshausen-neumann.de. sibilities. But please, do not send out also made many new and lasting o multiple submissions of your article friends.
PAGE 16 LITERARY JOURNALISM / WINTER 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
IALJS OFFICERS AND CHAIRS, 2006-2008 PRESIDENT Roehampton Lane John Bak London SW15 5SL William Dow (managing editor) Université Nancy 2 UNITED KINGDOM American University of Paris Centre de Télé-enseignement Universitaire (CTU) w/44-20-8392-3257 Department of Comparative Literature 42-44, avenue de la Liberation, B.P. 3397 [email protected] 147, rue de Grenelle 54015 Nancy Paris 75007 FRANCE CHAIR, MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE FRANCE w/33-(0)383-968-448 Isabel Soares Santos w/33-1-4062-0600 ext 718 h/33-(0)383-261-476 Universidade Técnica de Lisboa [email protected] fax/33-(0)383-968-449 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas [email protected] Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa Jenny McKay (associate editor) 1300-663 Lisboa University of Stirling VICE PRESIDENT PORTUGAL Department of Film and Media Studies David Abrahamson w/351-213-619-430 Stirling FK9 4LA Northwestern University [email protected] Scotland Medill School of Journalism, 1845 Sheridan Rd. UNITED KINGDOM Evanston, IL 60208 MEMBERS, NOMINATING COMMITTEE w/44-1786-466-228 USA Alice Donat Trindade [email protected] w/01-847-467-4159 Universidade Técnica de Lisboa h/01-847-332-2223 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Susie Eisenhuth (book review editor) fax/01-847-332-1088 Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa University of Technology Sydney [email protected] 1300-663 Lisboa Journalism Program PORTUGAL PO Box 123 SECRETARY w/351-213-619-430 Broadway NSW 2007 Doug Underwood fax/351-213-619-442 AUSTRALIA University of Washington [email protected] w/61-2-9514-2308 Department of Communication, Box 353740 [email protected] Seattle, WA 98195 Isabel Soares Santos USA Universidade Técnica de Lisboa EDITORS, NEWSLETTER w/01-206-685-9377 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Bill Reynolds (co-editor) [email protected] Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa Ryerson University 1300-663 Lisboa School of Journalism, 350 Victoria St. TREASURER PORTUGAL Toronto, Ont. M5B 2K3 Bill Reynolds w/351-213-619-430 CANADA Ryerson University [email protected] w/01-416-979-5000 x6294 School of Journalism, 350 Victoria St. h/01-416-535-0892 Toronto, Ont. M5B 2K3 WEBMASTER [email protected] CANADA John Bak w/01-416-979-5000 x6294 Université Nancy 2 David Abrahamson (co-editor) h/01-416-535-0892 Centre de Télé-enseignement Universitaire (CTU) Northwestern University [email protected] 42-44, avenue de la Liberation, B.P. 3397 Medill School of Journalism, 1845 Sheridan Rd. 54015 Nancy Evanston, IL 60208 CHAIR, RESEARCH COMMITTEE FRANCE USA Alice Donat Trindade w/33-(0)383-968-448 w/01-847-467-4159 Universidade Técnica de Lisboa h/33-(0)383-261-476 h/01-847-332-2223 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas fax/33-(0)383-968-449 f/01-847-332-1088 Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa [email protected] [email protected] 1300-663 Lisboa PORTUGAL EDITORS, LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES MEMBERS, BOARD OF ADVISORS (in progress) w/351-213-619-430 John Hartsock (editor) Norman Sims fax/351-213-619-442 State University of New York College at Courtland University of Massachusetts, Amherst [email protected] Department of Communication Studies Department of Journalism, Bartlett Hall #108 Courtland, NY 13045 Amherst, MA 01003 CHAIR, PROGRAM COMMITTEE USA USA Susan Greenberg w/01-607-753-4103 w/01-413-545-5929 Roehampton University h/01-607-749-6756 h/01-413-774-2970 School of Arts fax/607-753-5970 fax/01-413-545-3880 Creative Writing [email protected] [email protected]
LITERARY JOURNALISM /FALL 2007 PAGE 17 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
THE MYSTERIES OF MASTERING STRUCTURE A few suggestions for teachers of one of the more difficult aspects of writing. By Mark Massé, Ball State (U.S.A.)
uccessful authors of literary journal- the best daily newspaper to read if inter- room in great detail, including the ism know that the right narrative ested in analyzing structure. In fact, the appearances and attire of the board of structure is required to craft clear, Journal pioneered use of the representa- directors holding the meeting, this is coherent and compelling stories. John tive profile and “full-circle” story organi- merely scene setting. Even if dialogue is SMcPhee is legendary for using an array of zation. Another tip is to remember the added, there is still no scene because organizational models customized to the excellent models that may well have been something vital is missing: drama. form and function of his material. Two- overlooked: fables, parables and fairy To write a scene, an author must time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon tales. Think of how many award-winning make the reader care about the outcome Franklin rec- stories (not to mention books and films) of the situation. There must be something ommends have relied on the themes from narratives at stake. There must be conflict, a compli- Anton such as: City Mouse and Country Mouse, cation or a challenge. There must be dra- Chekhov’s David Versus Goliath, and Beauty and the matic tension. In the case of our execu- four-part fic- Beast. These archetypes may offer writers tive committee meeting, we need a crisis. tional formula a blueprint for their contemporary sto- Let’s say the chief executive officer of the (complication, ries. company has been indicted for insider development, Another suggestion is to look for trading violations on Wall Street. The point of insight patterns in one’s material. What mes- media are pressuring company officials and resolution) sages or points keep recurring? What for their response. The reputation and for dramatizing themes exist? Who or what are the sub- future of the company are at stake. Now nonfiction writ- jects of the story? Who is doing what to we have drama. ing. Teaching whom with what result? Depending on Formulas for dramatic writing TEACHING aspiring literary the type of story, categorization will date back to Aristotle. They were refined journalists enhance the analysis. For example, try by masters like Shakespeare. Successful TIPS about structure listing the key conflicts or challenges in literary journalists look to these fictional is arguably the one column and strategies or solutions in structures and apply them to their non- most difficult another. Does the information lend itself fiction. When it comes to scene writing, challenge facing educators and coaches. to a chronological model? Then material the simplest formula applies: a begin- The first step is getting the writer to state may be organized using a timeline. A ning, middle and end. The same require- the focus, theme or premise of the story in variation would be to employ a past-pre- ments exist for both an individual scene a brief sentence. If this is difficult, then sent-future approach. and the complete story. Each may be dra- the writer may be confusing the meaning If the story is driven by dramatic matized according to the four-part for- or focus of the story with its topic or sub- material, then a scene list should be con- mula attributed to the famous Russian ject matter. For example, a feature on an structed with a brief summary of major playwright and short story writer Anton underprivileged inner-city child overcom- actions. When Gay Talese was organizing Chekhov. It calls for complication, devel- ing obstacles to earn a college degree is the notes for his award-winning Esquire opment, point of insight and resolution. not simply about education, poverty or article, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” he The proper execution of this formula locale. Those are topic statements. The approached structure more like an artist ensures the effective writing of com- heart of this story is transcendence: how than an author. He “sketched” oversized pelling literary journalism. For more an ordinary person achieves the extraor- panels with comments for each of several information on the application of these dinary. Readers want to read stories that intended scenes in his narrative nonfic- dramatic techniques, consult Writing for inspire and illuminate, not merely inform. tion profile of the famous singer. Story by Jon Franklin. So think theme not just topic in analyzing But remember: Scene writing is Structure is the road map for and arranging material. not scene setting. For example, if some- successful literary journalism. Enjoy the o The Wall Street Journal is arguably one describes the setting of a conference journey.
LITERARY JOURNALISM THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES WINTER 2008 VOL. 2 NO. 1
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