Literary Journalism Studies e Journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 2017 Information for Contributors 4 Note from the Editor 5 Ted Conover and the Origins of “Immersion” in Literary Journalism by Patrick Walters 8 Pioneering Style: How the Washington Post Adopted Literary Journalism by omas R. Schmidt 34 Literary Journalism and Empire: George Warrington Steevens in Africa, 1898–1900 by Andrew Griths 60 T LJ e Ammo for the Canon: What Literary Journalism Educators Teach by Brian Gabrial and Elyse Amend 82 D LJ Toward a New Aesthetic of Digital Literary Journalism: Charting the Fierce Evolution of the “Supreme Nonction” by David O. Dowling 100 R R Recent Trends and Topics in Literary Journalism Scholarship by Roberta Maguire and Miles Maguire 118 S-P Q+A Kate McQueen Interviews Leon Dash 130 B R Martha Nandorfy on Behind the Text, Doug Cumming on e Redemption of Narrative, Rosemary Armao on e Media and the Massacre, Nancy L. Roberts on Newswomen, Brian Gabrial on Literary Journalism and World War I, and Patrick Walters on Immersion 141 Mission Statement 162 International Association for Literary Journalism Studies 163 2 Literary Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 2017 Copyright © 2017 International Association for Literary Journalism Studies All rights reserved Website: www.literaryjournalismstudies.org Literary Journalism Studies is the journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies and is published twice yearly. For information on subscribing or membership, go to www.ialjs.org. M Council of Editors of Learned Journals Published twice a year, Spring and Fall issues. Subscriptions, $50/year (individuals), $75/year (libraries). ISSN 1944-897X (paper) ISSN 1944-8988 (online) 3 Literary Journalism Studies Editor Advisory Board Bill Reynolds Robert Alexander, John S. Bak, Ryerson University R. omas Berner, Myriam Boucharenc, Canada Robert S. Boynton, omas B. Connery, Juan Domingues, David Eason, Associate Editors Tobias Eberwein, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Leonora Flis, Kathy Roberts Forde, William Dow Brian Gabrial, Ellen Garvey, American University of Paris Susan Greenberg, Vera Hanna, France Roberto Herrscher, Tim Holmes, Beate Josephi, Richard Lance Keeble, Miles Maguire Willa McDonald, Jenny McKay, University of Wisconsin Isabelle Meuret, John J. Pauly, Oshkosh, United States Guillaume Pinson, Josh Roiland, Barry Siegel, Norman Sims, Isabel Soares, Roberta S. Maguire Marie-Ève érenty, Alice Donat Trindade, University of Wisconsin Andie Tucher, Doug Underwood, Oshkosh, United States Jan Whitt, Christopher P. Wilson, Marcia R. Prior-Miller Mateusz Zimnoch, Sonja Merljak Zvodc University of Iowa, Ames Designer United States Anthony DeRado Book Review Editor Web Administrator Nancy L. Roberts University at Albany, SUNY Nicholas Jackson United States Editorial Assistant Publisher Christina Prevette David Abrahamson Northwestern University Founding Editor United States John C. Hartsock Editorial O ces Literary Journalism Studies School of Journalism Ryerson University 350 Victoria Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 2K3 Email: [email protected] Published at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University 1845 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, United States 4 Literary Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 2017 SUBMISSION INFORMATION ITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES invites submissions of original scholarly L articles on literary journalism, which is also known as narrative journalism, liter- ary reportage, reportage literature, New Journalism, and the nonction novel, as well as literary and narrative nonction that emphasizes cultural revelation. e journal has an international focus and seeks submissions on the theory, history, and pedagogy of literary journalism throughout the world. All disciplinary approaches are welcome. Submissions should be informed with an awareness of the existing scholarship and should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words in length, including notes. To encourage international dialogue, the journal is open to publishing on occasion short examples or excerpts of previously published literary journalism accompanied by a scholarly gloss about or an interview with the writer who is not widely known outside his or her country. e example or excerpt must be translated into English. e scholarly gloss or interview should generally be between 1,500 and 2,500 words long and in- dicate why the example is important in the context of its national culture. Together, both the text and the gloss generally should not exceed 8,000 words in length. e contributor is responsible for obtaining all copyright permissions, including from the publisher, author, and translator as necessary. e journal is also willing to consider publication of exclusive excerpts of narrative literary journalism accepted for publica- tion by major publishers. Email submission (as a Microsoft Word attachment) is mandatory. A cover page indi- cating the title of the paper, the author’s name, institutional a liation, and contact in- formation, along with an abstract (250 words), should accompany all submissions. e cover page should be sent as a separate attachment from the abstract and submission to facilitate distribution to readers. No identication should appear linking the author to the submission or abstract. All submissions must be in English Microsoft Word and follow the Chicago Manual of Style (Humanities endnote style) <http://www.chicago- manualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html>. All submissions will be blind reviewed. Send submissions to the editor at <[email protected]>. Copyright reverts to the contributor after publication with the provision that if re- published reference is made to initial publication in Literary Journalism Studies. OOK REVIEWS are invited. ey should be 1,000–2,000 words and focus on Bthe scholarship of literary journalism and recent original works of literary jour- nalism that deserve greater recognition among scholars. Book reviews are not blind reviewed but selected by the book review editor based on merit. Reviewers may sug- gest book review prospects or write the book review editor for suggestions. Usually reviewers will be responsible for obtaining their respective books. Book reviews and/ or related queries should be sent to Nancy L. Roberts at <[email protected]> 5 Note from the Editor . he last time I taught Ted Conover’s magazine cover Tstory, “e Way of All Flesh,” which was about the author’s time spent working at a massive Nebraska slaugh- terhouse called Cargill Meat Solutions—don’t you adore that name?—two anxious fourth-year undergraduate students intercepted me in the corridor as class was about to begin. Were they ill? No. Were they being called away? No. Did they have some urgent reporting or interviewing to do for another class? No. ey had a confession to make. ey had not com- pleted the week’s reading. In fact, they had hardly started the week’s reading. Why? Because it was about cows being put to death in the service of human appetite and, being vegetarians, they were repulsed by the idea of reading the story. e show went on without them, and the two students meekly sat through the discussion. I do not know exactly how much conscience should play a role in this circumstance, but they did miss a ne story. ey could have compared and contrasted Conover’s tale with Upton Sinclair’s book e Jungle to gauge how much more (or less) humane we have become in our treatment of cows over the past century plus. ey may have come to the same conclusion as the writer, namely, that we are “a group of predators (a pack, you might say) presiding over the slaughter of vast herds far too numer- ous for us to eat ourselves. e genius and horror of humanity was our ability to send the spoils to anonymous others of our kind located states and conti- nents away. [Y]ou could see us as naked apes, as hominids killing cows; industrial slaughter is predation writ large.” Conover, as is well known, over many years has nely honed his ability to act as his reader’s eyes. What struck me as di erent with “e Way of All Flesh,” if compared to, say, the author’s book, Newjack, about his time spent working as a jail guard at the Sing Sing correctional facility in Westchester County, New York, is the warmth and intimacy he is able to convey to the reader—even as the reader is quite aware, and made quite aware, that Conover is self-consciously aware that he is a character in the drama and is careful not to fall into the trap of making the story more about him than about how we treat the animals we eat and therefore about human nature in general. Patrick Walters’s lead article on Conover’s immersion, “Ted Conover and the Origins of Immersion in Literary Journalism,” explores this evolv- ing methodology by focusing on three recent works in particular: the book, 6 Literary Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, Spring 2017 Routes of Man (2010), plus “e Way of All Flesh” (Harper’s, May 2013) and “Rolling Nowhere, Part 2” (Outside, July 2014). Walters contends that Conover’s “‘I’ camera” has become more versatile in switching angles from the ethnographic to the journalistic to the intensely personal. omas Schmidt’s essay, “Pioneer of Style: How the Washington Post Ad- opted Literary Journalism,” zeroes in on the radical transformation of the Post’s Style section, from a conservative container of innocuous gossip about powerful people in the capital to a hotbed of New Journalism experimenta- tion. Editor Ben Bradlee and his handpicked senior sta both plucked and attracted talented writers teeming with voice and an understanding of the counterculture, and Schmidt captures the historical framework that allowed a “narrative news logic” to take hold of American newsrooms. ndrew Gri ths brings us the story of British journalist George War- Arington Steevens, who deftly and dutifully reported on the deeds of em- pire during the late nineteenth century using a kind of proto–new journalistic style.