THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS Literary jourNAl i s m · Thursday,7May2015 Sign in 8.00 – 9.00 Pick up conference materials Session 1 9.00 – 9.15 Welcome and Introduction Session

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T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E I A L J S

LLiitteerraarryy jjoouurrNNAAll ii ss mmVOL 9 NO 2 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES SPRING 2015

Iheard a wonderful but apocryphal story theother day. Steven Shapin told the story in areview of a history of science written by a

theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner.He said a distinguished cardiac surgeon on thecusp of retirement decided to take up the histo-ry of medicine. “He sought out a historianfriend, and asked her if she had any tips for

him. The historiansaid she’d be happyto help but firstasked the surgeon areciprocal favor: ‘Asit happens, I’mabout to retire too,and I’m thinking oftaking up heartsurgery. Do youhave any tips forme?’” That asymme-try between heartsurgery and theskills of the historianis less evident in lit-

erary journalism. As I’ve said elsewhere, wehave excellent literary history written by con-temporary literary journalists such as RichardRhodes, Nick Lemann and Michael Norman.Literary journalists love great stories whereverfound—although scholars in our field may askdifferent questions or study literary issues thataren’t as dramatic. Defining the field and label-ing it have been persistent questions.

At our tenth conference inMinneapolis from May 7-9, we’ll have opportu-nities to explore these issues. The host’s panelorganized by Tom Connery will take on thequestion: “What is Literary Journalism?” Mypresident’s panel with Tom Kunkel, John Paulyand Ben Yagoda will be discussing early schol-arship on the field, which happened during theNew Journalism era but not during the early

years of the genre itself.Discussing the genre always

involves terminology. We may find our-selves defining or re-examining ourfavorite term, literary journalism. I haveseen two related media usages. Esquire(Jan/Feb 2015) mentioned that JillAbramson, former executive editor of theNew York Times, is “currently developing along-form-journalism start-up.” Lots ofhyphenation in that term but it’s encour-aging that such a high-ranking editorwould think long-form or literary journal-ism might be an appropriate next step.

The Wall Street Journal (17-18 Jan.2015) had an interview with one of themost famous of the New Journalists. TheJournal identified him this way: “AuthorGay Talese, 82, helped pioneer literaryjournalism in the 1960s with articles like

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.’” I’ve neverbeen a fan of using the term NewJournalism to refer to literary journalismoutside of its original 1960s context, but Ican’t remember seeing an actual NewJournalist such as Talese identified simplyas a literary journalist. Maybe we can sortthis out better in beautiful Minneapolis.

I didn’t get much response to myquestion about current literary journalismdevoted to economic conditions amongcommon people. But some of the papersand work-in-progress reports inMinneapolis will touch on the topic, incontemporary and historical terms,including presentations on Katherine

ANNUALMEETINGIN MAY IN MINNEAPOLISThe registration for our annual conference inMay can be completed using the form on<<hhttttpp::////iiaalljjss..oorrgg//ccoonnffeerreennccee--iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn//>>via PayPal with your credit card. You mayalso register with the form on Page 4 inside.As in the past, there is a substantial dis-count for early registration.

FUTURE SITES FORANNUAL MEETINGSTo help you with your own scheduling, thefollowing future IALJS convention venues areconfirmed and/or planned:

IIAALLJJSS--1111:: Pontifícia UniversidadeCatólica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre,Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 19-21 May 2016.

IIAALLJJSS--1122:: University of King's College,Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 11-13 May2017.

IIAALLJJSS--1133:: Universitat de Barcelona,Barcelona, Spain, 17-19 May 2018.

IIAALLJJSS--1144:: Brock University, St.Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 9-11 May2019.

IIAALLJJSS--1155:: University of Nova Gorica,Slovenia, 16-18 May 2020 (pending).

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PRESIDENT’SLETTER

WWW.IALJS.ORG

Please don’tforget to pay your 2015

member dues,and we’ll celebrate at IALJS-10

in May

IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO DEFINE OUR FIELD?At IALJS-10, we will try.

By Norman Sims,University of Masachusetts-Amherst (U.S.A.)

Continued on Page 3

The IALJS conference this May at theUniversity of St. Thomas in St. Paulwill be hosted by the Department of

Communication and Journalism, locatedon the first floor of the O’ShaughnessyEducational Center.

Affectionately called “COJO”,the Department of Communication andJournalism at the University of St.

Thomas seeks tomake the world abetter placethrough ethicalcommunication.“Every COJO stu-dent takes ourcapstone course incommunicationethics where thefocus is on doingethics rather thanjust learning aboutit,” says WendyWyatt, Ph.D.,

chair of the department. COJO employs 16 full-time facul-

ty members with diverse specializationsranging from rhetoric and communicationtheories and methods to journalism andvisual communication. Two COJO profes-sors have recently been awarded the


PAGE 2 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2015

University of St. Thomas’ “Professor ofthe Year” distinction. As a departmentwithin the College of Arts and Sciences,COJO boasts a link to more than 350majors and minors throughout the uni-versity, which ensures an interdiscipli-nary and diverse education for all of itsundergraduate majors and minors.

Along with its journalism cours-es in such fields as Multimedia Reportingand Videography, COJO also offers theoryand rhetoric courses like Public Speaking,Communication in the Workplace andCommunications of Race, Class &Gender, as well as marketing courses likePublic Relations Writing and AdvertisingCopywriting.

Majors and minors at COJO par-ticipate in a wide range of extracurricularactivities like Communication Club,which provides a place for COJO andbusiness communications majors to findout how to succeed in the real world, andAd Fed (Advertising Federation), whichbrings in guest speakers from local adLLIITTEERRAARRYY JJOOUURRNNAALLIISSMM

SPRING 2015 Vol. 9 No. 2Editors: Bill Reynolds and David AbrahamsonISSN 1941-1030 (print)ISSN 1941-1049 (online)© 2015 The Newsletter of the International Associationfor Literary Journalism Studies. All rights reserved.

WELCOME,IALJS

MEMBERS

COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM DEPT. WILL HOST IALJS-10 COJO at the University of St. Thomas emphasizes ethical communication practices to all students.

By Megan Suckut, Northwestern University (U.S.A.)

agencies and puts on social events to givestudents an opportunity to learn moreabout the field of advertising. COJO alsohas a chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, thenational communication honor society,

and the Public Relations Student Societyof America, which encourages the under-standing of current theories and proce-dures in the practice of public relations.TommieMedia, an award-winning stu-dent-run news organization, provides

The departmentis particulary proud that

its studentshave won numerous awards

over the years

Continued on next page


LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2015 PAGE 3

PRESIDENT Continued from Page 1

ST. THOMAS Continued from Page 2

Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers andFlorence Aubenas’s work on people of theabyss in France.

Right after the closing convoca-tion in Minneapolis on Saturday, thanksto Film Platform, we will show a newdocumentary, The 50-Year Argument,directed by Martin Scorsese and DavidTedeschi, about the New York Review ofBooks. It’s not so much about literary jour-nalism as it is about the journalism of lit-erature, but that’s okay. In the film,Samuel Johnson is quoted saying: “Litera-ture is a kind of intellectual light, which,like the light of the sun, enables us to seewhat we do not like.”

And then Johnson asks a verydisturbing question: “Who would wishto escape unpleasing objects by condemn-ing himself to perpetual darkness?” JoanDidion, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer,Mary McCarthy and others are present tooffer their insights in the film. ©

news, information and advertisingopportunities for a staff of more than 50students who work closely with six facul-ty advisors. Students from COJO havewon awards from the AssociatedCollegiate Press, the Society ofProfessional Journalists and theMinnesota Newspaper Association, with11 MNA awards in 2013 alone.

The Department ofCommunication and Journalism at theUniversity of St. Thomas is excited tohost the IALJS Conference in St. Paul thisMay. Take the time to explore the depart-ment and its students’ work once you’rehere! © IIAALLJJSS--1100 CCOONNFFEERREENNCCEE SSCCHHEEDDUULLEE SSUUMMMMAARRYY

WWeeddnneessddaayy,, 66 MMaayy 22001155

Session 0 16.00 – 18.00 Executive Committee Meeting

TThhuurrssddaayy,, 77 MMaayy 22001155

Sign in 8.00 – 9.00 Pick up conference materialsSession 1 9.00 – 9.15 Welcome and IntroductionSession 2 9.15 – 10.45 Work-in-Progress Session I Session 3 11.00 – 12.30 Panel I (President’s Panel) Lunch 12.30 – 13.45Session 4 13.45 – 15.15 Research Paper Session ISession 5 15.30 – 17.00 Work-in-Progress Session II and Panel IISession 6 17.15 – 18.45 Panel III (Conference Host’s Panel)Session 7 19.15 – 21.00 Conference Reception

FFrriiddaayy,, 88 MMaayy 22001155

Session 8 8.00 – 9:00 Breakfast for Your Thoughts (free to students)Session 9 9.30 – 10.30 Keynote Speech Session 10 10.45 – 12.15 Work-in-Progress Sessions III and IVLunch 12.15 – 13.30Session 11 12.15 – 13.30 Working Lunch: Publication Committee and LJS StaffSession 12 13.30 – 15.00 Research Paper Session IISession 13 15.15 – 16.45 Panels IV and VSession 14 17.00 – 18.00 President’s Greeting & Annual Business MtgSession 15 19.00 – 21.00 Conference Banquet (per reservation)

SSaattuurrddaayy,, 99 MMaayy 22001155

Session 16 9.00 – 10.30 Work-in-Progress Sessions V and VISession 17 10.45 – 12.15 Panel VISession 18 12.30 – 13.00 Closing Convocation



2015 IALJS CONVENTION REGISTRATION FORM7-9 May 2015

University of St. ThomasCollege of Arts & Sciences and Department of Communication and Journalism, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.

1.a. PRE-REGISTRATION FEES (MUST BE POSTMARKED ON OR BEFORE 31 MARCH 2015)Please indicatethe applicableamounts:

Current IALJS Member – $120 (rate for those already having paid their 2015 dues)Current IALJS Member retired – $100 (rate for those already having paid their 2015 dues)

Student – $5 (rate for those already having paid their 2015 dues)Student – $30 (Includes a one-year IALJS membership)

Non-IALJS member – $170 (Includes a one-year IALJS membership)

Spouse/Partner – $50 (This fee is required only if a spouse will be attending scheduled research sessions and/or panels)

1.b. REGISTRATION FEES POSTMARKED AFTER 31 MARCH 2015(Note: Meals & special events may not be available to those who register after 31 March 2015)

Current IALJS Member – $155 (rate for those already having paid their 2015 dues)

Current IALJS Member retired – $135 (rate for those already having paid their 2015 dues)Student – $30 (rate for those already having paid their 2015 dues)

Student – $55 (Includes a one-year IALJS membership)Non-IALJS member – $205 (Includes a one-year IALJS membership)

Spouse/Partner – $85 (This fee is required only if a spouse will be attending scheduled research sessions and/or panels)

1.c. ON-SITE REGISTRATION – $180 for IALJS members, $230 for non-members (includes a one-yearIALJS membership). 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"Breakfast for Your Thoughts" (Friday morning) Number attending x $20*

Conference Banquet (Friday evening) Number attending x $60

*NOTE: Breakfast on Friday is FREE to students, who, in a collegial IALJS tradition, have a chance to present their work and career goals to the IALJS's faculty members.

Make registration checks payable to “IALJS” TOTAL ENCLOSED:

Please return completed formwith a check or bank transferpayable to “IALJS” to >>>

To register on-line via PayPal,see “Conference Payments” atWWW.IALJS.ORG

BILL REYNOLDS,IALJS PresidentSchool of JournalismRyerson University350 Victoria St.,Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3CANADATel: +01-416-979-5000 x6294Fax: [email protected]

For a reservation at the convention hotel,DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Minneapolis

special IALJS rate information (single/double: $175.11)hotel and the registration form can be found at the following link:

http://www.ialjs.org/?page_id=21

3. REGISTRATION INFOName:Address/Department

School/University

City, State, Zip, CountryPhone

E-mail Address

Name of Spouse (if attending)









IALJS-10 PROGRAM Continued from previous page



IALLJS-9 PROGRAM Continued from previous page















LITERARY JOURNALISM IN DENMARKThere are advantages to a vibrant collective spirit.

By Christine Isager, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

As a new rhetoric student 20 yearsago, I was trained to exchangecritical feedback with fellow stu-

dents on work in progress. This writingpedagogy was American, but we hadsome excellent local role models inCopenhagen, namely the young journal-

ists at what isroutinely evokedas the all timecoolest journalis-tic magazine inDenmark: themonthly PRESS.It specialized inlong-form, criti-cal journalismand was run onhigh energy anda low, fragilebudget from 1985to 2001. Assigned

reading material in my writing class of1993 was an authentic, early draft for aPRESS story alongside the published ver-sion. Our professor diagrammed howtedious chronology had been transformedinto excellently effective montage bybeing shared with peers and then cut up,reassembled and rewritten, jointly andtirelessly.

One PRESS journalist, PeterØvig Knudsen (b. 1961), is today the sin-gle most prominent literary journalist inDenmark. He has written best-sellingbooks on liquidation of informers amongresisters during the German occupation ofDenmark 1940-1945 and on the "BlekingeStreet Gang," a Danish group of Marxistactivists who committed a series of brutal,highly professional robberies in the 1970sand 1980s to support the Popular Frontfor the Liberation of Palestine. Recently, intwo large volumes, Øvig tells first thebright and then the darker story of theDanish hippie movement with a focus onhow its vision was turned into practice for74 days when a new society, the ThyCamp, was built on a bare, northwesternfield in the summer of 1970.

Øvig is very much a soloist innarrative nonfiction but in interviews,forewords and a recent book on method-ological dilemmas, Øvig carefully creditshis so-called “backing band” of formercolleagues from PRESS who are stillinvolved in his work as sparring partners.Possibly, the backing band has helpeddevelop Øvig's still more transparentstyle of writing which seems to havebecome pertinent when memory playedtricks on his sources for the hippie books.Øvig decided to present their mutual con-tradictions explicitly.

In an opening scene, "Claus-the-Carpenter" arrives in Thy. He worksalongside Henning, making preparationsfor the camp and sharing Henning's site-hut. Next, we meet Henning who com-ments that Claus wasn't even there for thepreparations. And then another key fig-ure, Leo, states that actually, Henninghimself was only participating over thephone from Copenhagen. With that kindof source material to work with, seriousjournalistic sparring should be treasured.

Recently, in 2012, a new, inde-pendent backing band has entered the lit-erary journalism scene in Denmark underthe name of Zetland (as in that unlikelyhybrid of a Shetland pony and a zebra.)The four members, all journalists andborn around 1980, publish journalistic sin-gles in digital format and are doing quitewell—even if e-reading as such is still nota big thing in Denmark. Zetland cooper-ates with The Atavist in the U.S. andLongplay in Finland (some of you may

have heardMariaLassila-Merisalospeak aboutthese in apresentationat IALJS-9 inParis inMay). Moreover, Zetland has producedsuccessful, highly recommendable stageshows as well as more intimate garageevents at different venues in Copenhagen,including the Royal Theatre, where jour-nalistic stories are performed live.

While the bestselling Øvigrecently made headlines because hereceived a work grant from the Danishstate without even applying for it,Zetland's singles business has beendenied media support because it does notqualify as proper news media. Still, thefour partners have this year been able topay wages to themselves and seem eagerto go on, now offering courses in long-form journalism and running a small tal-ent program for young writers. I oftenpoint new rhetoric students their way, asZetland's collective care for well-told sto-ries of current events strikes me as exem-plary—and perhaps worth reminiscingabout 20 years from now. ©

AROUND THEWORLD

An effectivemontage had been created

by sharing withpeers, disassembled, reassembled

and rewritten jointly





International Conference

“A Language to Dwell In”:James Baldwin, Paris and International Visions

The American University of Paris26-28 May 2016

Call for PapersThe American University of Paris announces a call for papers for the International JamesBaldwin Conference to be held 26-28 May 2016 at the American University of Paris. Other Paris venues crucial to Baldwin’s experience of the city will be used as additional settings,thus taking conference participants into “Baldwin’s Paris.”

The Conference encourages broad international and interdisciplinary exploration ofBaldwin’s life and writing, with emphasis on the Paris he inhabited (intermittently from1948 onwards), both for what it was and for what it is today as a result of the marks heleft behind. An emphasis on his versatility in terms of style, genre and socio-politicalconcerns is also of primary concern. Stressing the importance of Baldwin’s life, work and literary relations, the conference will be an intersection for all those interested inBaldwin’s work: from literary and cultural critics, to scholars of gender and queer theory,to political activists, poets, filmmakers, historians and musicians as well. We seek a widerange of academic and public discussions which can engage with Baldwin’s work.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

° Baldwin and Expatriate Paris: Friends and Enemies

° Baldwin as a Global Explorer: The Fire Yet Again?

° Global Influence: Baldwin’s Work in Non-U.S. Settings

° Baldwin in a Post-Racial Imaginary

° Baldwin and Genre

° Baldwin and Literary Journalism

° Baldwin and the Civil Rights Movement

° Teaching Baldwin Today

° Baldwin and the Other Arts

Proposal for papers should include

1. A brief (250-300 word) abstract

2. A one to two page vita.

Submissions to [email protected] and [email protected]

Deadline for Submissions December 1 2015.



In 2011, as the Arab Springdawned, young Lebanese journal-ist Ibrahim Nehme yearned to

play a role in the changes sweepingthe Middle East. The region’s printmedia, he believed, didn’t measureup to the hopes of the demonstrators,who demanded democracy and freshideas. So Nehme resolved to start hisown magazine as an outlet for thevoices of the younger generation. He

drained his savings, took out a loan,and asked family and friends forhelp. The first issue of The Outpost<http://www.the-outpost.com/>, a

quarterly English-language print publication featuring long-form articles on the choices facing the Arabworld, appeared in September 2012.

“I felt there’s an opportunity tosay and make something different, makesomething that would become part of therevolution,” says Nehme, now 28. The ideawas to create a “media voice that can cap-ture our imagination, provide us with aspace to dream, speak up, think freely, bewho we are as Arab youth.”

Launching a print magazine todayis courageous; some would say foolhardy.Indeed, two years in, Nehme has slowedhis publishing pace from quarterly to semi-annual as he faces aconstant struggle to make ends meet. But The Outpost, with aprint run of about 3,000 per issue, is hardly flying solo.Worldwide, new print titles have been popping up to cover abreathtaking array of topics, from new-age agriculture (ModernFarmer) to handyman ingenuity (Makeshift) to Californian cul-ture (California Sunday Magazine).

And some of these publications are highlighting long-form narrative as a key selling point. Take Lucky Peach, a foodmagazine launched in 2011, with its award-winning features onManhattan chef and restaurateur Wylie Dufresne <https://medium.com/lucky-peach/on-the-trail-with-wylie-f7ab43f210ee> and canning Southern fruits <https://medium.com/lucky-peach/i-placed-a-jar-in-tennessee-16007dc4a63e>, orThe Caravan, a venerable monthly that Delhi Press relaunched in2010 after a long hiatus, with its essays on anti-Sikh violence,Hindi literature, and the full spectrum of politics and culture inbetween. For these publications, print still offers a powerfulbrand flagship as well as a source of revenue that digital plat-forms can supplement but not yet supplant.

Those launching print titles today are generally inde-pendent publishers, driven by passion, with little expectation ofbig profits. “When was the last time you heard of a [new] mag-azine coming from Time Inc.?” asks Samir Husni, director of the

EMBRACING NARRATIVE AND FINDING THEIR NICHELaunching a new print magazine requires, above all, a willingness to be scrappy and innovative.

By Kate Galbraith, Texas Tribune (U.S.A.)

Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi.The number of launches has fallen over the years, as has maga-zines’ collective circulation, yet new titles keep coming. What ittakes to survive, according to magazine entrepreneurs likeNehme, is targeting a clearly defined niche, finding committedbackers and creative fundraising methods and, above all, a will-ingness to be scrappy and innovative.

Of all the types of magazines to consider starting dur-ing the digital age, travel seems among the least likely to suc-ceed, though Airbnb plans to launch a travel magazine calledPineapple. Digital travel tips have practically obviated the needfor guidebooks, making Lonely Planet (my first writing job outof college) look almost like Baedekers. The graveyard of recentlyshuttered magazines includes Executive Travel, NationalGeographic Adventure, and Everywhere. And yet the circulation ofAfar, started by Greg Sullivan and Joseph Diaz in 2009, in the

teeth of the Great Recession, has grown to250,000, a five-fold increase from itslaunch, and advertising—the saving graceof the travel market—has become the corefinancial pillar. Plus, the business is nowprofitable, says Sullivan. Afar’s genius istargeting a different sort of journey, whichthe editors have dubbed “experiential”travel, in which the visitor interacts with aplace as the locals do and sees it throughtheir eyes. It’s not, says San Francisco-based editor in chief Julia Cosgrove, abouta “vacation built around escapist fantasiesof going to the beach.” Local markets, local

dress, local cuisine—all are featured, often in long, narrative for-mats. A popular feature is “Spin the Globe,” in which writers aresent to random destinations. One that captured particular atten-tion was <http://www.afar.com/magazine/spin-the-globe-ryan-knighton-in-cairo>. Cairo, while certainly a city rich withhistory, is more than a little difficult to navigate. The magazineavoids “homogenizing” its writers’ voices, says Cosgrove, keep-ing “the stories as personal and fresh as possible, because I thinkthat has more staying power than that sort of uni-voice that youfind so often in magazines.”

Cosgrove says Afar keeps a lean staff, with just nineeditors, yet puts original content on its website, largely byencouraging readers to volunteer their work. “In Paris, if youdiscover this really great coffee shop, you can take a photo,upload to afar.com, and describe the experience,” says Cosgrove.“People are willing and then wanting to share this informationwith other travelers.” Afar’s success reflects the importance oftargeting a highly specific audience. “You just have to find youraudience much more explicitly now than you’ve had to,” saysDana Chinn, a media analytics strategist at the University ofSouthern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and

Continued on following page

The magazine’s successis largely

due to its targetingof a highly

specific audience

INTERPRETIVEESSAY



NARRATIVE Continued from previous page

Journalism. Such strategies are behindmagazines like Yoga Digest, a Dallasonline community that launched a nation-al magazine in November; Good, a newlyre-launched magazine focusing on peoplemaking a positive impact in the world;and Makeshift, which features acts of inge-nuity from around the world.

Knowing your audience can payoff in revenue beyond subscriptions andadvertising, the traditional pillars of printprofit. “You’re building a community,”says Chinn, “an audience who wants tobe associated with each other.” Afarderives revenue from excursions it orga-nizes each year to destinations like Cairo,Johannesburg and Montreal. The jour-neys, which cost $1,800 to $4,500, offerreaders a chance to meet locals, includingpoliticians and activists, as well as like-minded Afar readers. The trips “bring thepages of the magazine to life in a very lit-eral way,” Cosgrove says.

The narrative niche itself cansometimes be the source of a title’sappeal, as readers seek out longer readsand deeper analysis. That’s whynewsweeklies are losing relevance,according to Anant Nath, editor of TheCaravan, which claims to be the first mag-azine in India devoted to long-form nar-rative. “Weekly journalism is increasinglya regurgitation of the past week’s news,which is of little relevance,” he says. “An8,000-word profile of a politician, whereinthe reporter has done some 30 to 40 inter-views, presents a lot of new information,”and thus presents greater appeal to read-ers.

Even subjects like food, normallymore associated with recipes than long-form, can lend themselves to narrative.“Twitter is awesome, but you don’t dis-connect from the stress of your daily lifeand sink into your couch with youriPhone,” says Lucky Peach co-founderPeter Meehan. “You maintain the para-noia.” Lucky Peach, which prints about100,000 copies of each issue, happily pub-lishes long pieces on trends likeMalaysian street food <http://www.buz-zfeed.com/luckypeach/malaysian-street-food-guide> and Christian culinary tradi-tions in India. The magazine won fiveJames Beard awards this year for articles

on, among other topics, gay influences oncooking <http://itsjohnbirdsall.tumblr.com/post/72230642839/america-your-food-is-so-gay> and the tale of aLong Island chef <https://medium.com/@luckypeach/a-day-on-long-island-with-alex-lee-5e0c819f6c20> who blendedcuisines long before it was cool, like roast-ed lobster flavored with soy sauce. “Forus, it was like, Where are our strengths?What can we do that Bon Appétit can’tdo?” Meehan says, recalling the thoughtprocess that went into starting the compa-ny. “Literature is nourishing.”

Technology has brought downprinting costs, but launching a magazineremains extremely expensive. For TheCalifornia Sunday Magazine, whichdebuted this fall with a print run of more

than 400,000, the magic number was $2million. Douglas McGray, one of the co-founders, says he and his colleaguesraised that amount from a mix of individ-ual investors, some from Hollywood,publishing and the technology world.With its emphasis on artfulness and nar-rative style, California Sunday carriesechoes of the New Yorker, but with fea-tures on virtual reality and Blue BottleCoffee instead of opera and Manhattantraffic. Perhaps inevitably for a publica-tion born in the spirit of Silicon Valley,McGray doesn’t see it as a print launch.The same content that reaches readers attheir homes the first Sunday of eachmonth also appears on apps and the Web.McGray, a longtime feature journalist,and publisher Chas Edwards got the ideafor California Sunday from Pop-UpMagazine, their live “magazine” of on-stage storytelling whose performances upand down the West Coast sell out in min-utes. Pop-Up performs at night, a time Continued on next page

We aretrying to be as lean

as possible,except for stories and art

our readers love

when even people in tech-frenziedCalifornia relax and open their minds tostories. A Sunday magazine could plea-surably fill non-working hours, he rea-soned, especially if people could read ithowever they wanted—on tablets, onphones, in print. And California had noanswer to the New York Times Magazine orthe New Yorker, though Pacific Standardfills some of that role. “It started to strikeme as strange that with all the people inCalifornia and the West, and all the cul-tural, political and business influence,that when we read big national featuresabout [life and ideas in the West], it tendsto be made in New York,” McGray says.

His backers’ money allowsMcGray to pay well for quality freelancework. The magazine currently has nostaff writers. “We’re trying to be as leanas possible everywhere except for storiesand art and the things that bring readersstories,” he says. The November issueincluded a long tale about the dangersand opportunities of deep-sea mining,with reporting from Papua, New Guinea.One article <https://stories.californiasun-day.com/2014-11-02/richard-misrach-bor-der-signs/> told the story of the U.S.-Mexico border fence: one image showed ascattering of shotgun shells, another abattered soccer ball, a third the high, rust-colored border fence extending down asandy beach.

Print has emerged as a core partof California Sunday’s business model.Rather than laboriously building a sub-scriber base by itself, California Sundaypiggybacked on the distribution of exist-ing newspapers. The magazine currentlyarrives as an insert in certain home-deliv-ered editions of the San FranciscoChronicle, the Los Angeles Times and theSacramento Bee, as well as San Francisco-area copies of the New York Times. Payingnewspapers to distribute a magazine isfar cheaper than mailing them out indi-vidually, of course, and the big initial cir-culation numbers also allowed CaliforniaSunday to attract high-dollar advertiserssuch as Lexus and Nest Labs, the Google-owned maker of smart-home hardware.“We’re trying to be nimble,” McGray



from an engineering group; subsequentsponsors have included General Electric.The magazine is now expanding intodesign consulting and teaching as otherways of raising revenue.

It has also innovated on the dis-tribution side, taking advantage of newdigital tools that can help small publish-ers reach wider audiences. Single-issuecopies can be purchased at Magpile, anonline library and media shop thatcharges sellers like Makeshift a monthlyfee and takes an eight-percent cut of anissue’s cover price. Publishers themselvesare responsible for mailing out the maga-zines. Another service is U.K.-basedStack; founder and director Steve Watsonbuys a different magazine each month tosend out to his subscribers. Watson aimsfor interesting, fresh titles, and Makeshift,says Estey, is in the 2015 lineup.

For these nascent titles, digitalstrategies diverge. Many lack an elaborateWeb presence; Lucky Peach, for example,has a Tumblr presence, but mostly steersusers toward its print edition (“We’regoing to start a real site next year, withdaily content,” says Meehan.) The Webhas a faster metabolism, as CaseyCaplowe, co-founder of Good magazine,puts it. “The Web is a great place for themore quick and news-responsive thing,”he says, whereas print allows for sittingback and digging into nuance.

Yet the question remainswhether digital media will one day erodeprint so profoundly that it disappearscompletely. There are signs, in fact, thatusers are increasingly comfortable read-ing long-form writing on tablets andmobile devices. Earlier this year peoplespent more than 25 minutes reading a6,000-word BuzzFeed story on theirphones about buying a cheap home inDetroit, according to the Atlantic<http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo-gy/archive/2014/01/sit-back-relax-and-read-that-long-story-on-your-phone/283205/>. The story received more than amillion pageviews, with nearly half thepeople accessing it from mobile devices.

The venture planned by formerNew York Times executive editor Jill

circulation.One of the most improbable new

titles of recent years is Makeshift <http://mkshft.org/about/>, a quarterly maga-zine devoted to the ingenuity of ordinarypeople. Myles Estey, editor-in-chief andco-founder, had been living in Liberia fora couple years and became fascinated bythe informal economy there—how peoplebuilt and fixed their own motorbikes,how discarded stuffed animals werecleaned and reused, how people scrapedand scrapped for a living. And so, in 2011,he and a like-minded engineer, SteveDaniels, decided to start a magazinedevoted to this niche.

The subject matter was so specif-ic that they knew they wouldn’t attractmany advertisers or even enough sub-

scribers to break even, but they pushedforward nonetheless. Print was the obvi-ous choice, according to Estey, becausemagazines have a special way of tellingstories and building community. Makeshifthas built a following by publishing longessays on subjects such as the blind hawk-ers in Mumbai’s train stations and howthe tunnels under the border betweenGaza and Egypt are built and destroyed.“It’s a lot of work,” admits Estey, whospends much of his time in Mexico Cityand has written about drug smugglingand film pirating. Makeshift’s editors allwork other jobs, because no can yet makea full-time living from the magazine. It’san advantage, Estey argues, because edi-tors pull ideas from their outside lines ofwork.

Readers—and, just as crucially,sponsors—have responded enthusiastical-ly. Makeshift has built its circulation to20,000. Crowd-funding helped with theearly issues, which also received support

says. “We’re launching with the footprintof a magazine that a big media companywould produce, but we’re really influ-enced by the start-up culture of SiliconValley.”

California Sunday is an outlier.For most fledgling magazines, print can-not pull in the necessary advertising dol-lars. Crowd-funding goes only so far, andfew print magazines launch with enoughsubscribers to entice advertisers. Nor aremany sufficiently well funded at launchto keep publishing long enough to buildthe circulation and reputation thatattracts advertisers. (Afar is one excep-tion; its founders, Diaz and Sullivan, aswell as another investor, Ernie Garcia,have pumped $20 million into it.) TheOutpost had hoped initially to generatevirtually all of its revenue from advertis-ing, but now has given that up. “We’veliterally stopped contacting or approach-ing advertisers,” says Nehme, the editor-in-chief. “It’s just discouraging anddemotivating and we’re worlds apart.”The alternative is a higher price for sub-scribers and single issues—in effect, forc-ing readers to pay more for the content.

Still, print often carries a cachetthat digital formats do not, at least notyet, many entrepreneurs say. A printproduct—a copy of the Economist or theNew Yorker lying on a coffee table—is afashion statement. At Boom, a three-year-old quarterly about Californian historyand culture published by the Universityof California Press, “the print edition isthe beautiful, substantive and evocativeobject at the center of the whole enter-prise,” says editor Jon Christensen. Boomfeatures long essays and photographs oneverything from John Muir <http://www.boomcalifornia.com/2014/08/john-muir-a-century-on/> to the San Franciscohousing boom <http://www. boomcali-fornia.com/2014/07/boom-and-bust-and-what-comes-next/> and is somewhatreminiscent of Monocle magazine, but ona California level. Last year, when Boomdevoted an entire issue <http://www.boomcalifornia.com/ 2013/09/fall-2013/> to the controversial history of LosAngeles’ water imports from the SierraNevada mountains, it generated plenty ofattention despite the magazine’s modest Continued on Page 19

NARRATIVE Continued from previous page

Yet thequestion remains whether

digital will oneday erode print so profoundly

that it disappers





biweekly and finally weekly frequency.“We talk around the office of not havingthe benefit of 100 years of history,” saysMcGray. “But we don’t have the burdeneither.” ©

Kate Galbraith has covered energy and envi-ronment for the Tribune since 2010.Previously she reported on clean energy forthe New York Times. She began her career atthe Economist in 2000 and spent 2005 to2007 in Austin as the magazine's Southwestcorrespondent. A Nieman fellow in journal-

Abramson and journalist and mediaentrepreneur Steven Brill, which will fea-ture mammoth long-form stories eachmonth in digital form rather than print,shows that even old media types are con-sidering digital as a way forward forlong-form journalism.

For now, though, the new printmagazines are living in the moment, andhoping to expand. California Sunday, forone, has grand plans. McGray hopes toincrease distribution, on apps and inprint, and steer the publication toward

ism at Harvard University from 2007 to2008, she has an undergraduate degree inEnglish from Harvard and a master's degreefrom the London School of Economics. She isco-author of The Great Texas Wind Rush, abook about how the oil and gas state won therace to wind power.

Reprinted courtesy permission of NiemanReports. Original story found at http://nie-manstoryboard.org/stories/new-print-maga-zines-are-embracing-narrative-and-finding-their-niche/.

NARRATIVE Continued from Page 17


SHARING THE SECRETS OF REPORTING IN DEPTHEnsuring that students understand that a notebook is a passport into other people’s lives.

By James Sheeler, Case Western Reserve University (U.S.A.)

Inside the nursing home, the 78 year-old man sat across from the two jour-nalism students and me, their new

professor, trying to figure out if wedeserved his story. Atthat point, I wasn’tsure if we did.

After more thantwo decades in thenewsroom, I won-dered if I could trans-port students to theplaces I relished as areporter—those inti-mate spaces that openwhen someone fullyinvites you into his orher life, when youopen the notebook

and enter a kind of privileged wakingdaydream.

In an attempt to find thosemoments during my first year teaching atCase Western Reserve University, Isearched for a place housing people withuntold stories—and the time to tell them.I decided to spend the entire semester ofour “multimedia storytelling” class at theEliza Bryant Village nursing home, thelongest continually operating African-American assisted living home in thecountry, located in the economically

struggling but historically rich Hougharea of Cleveland.

At the beginning of each semes-ter, I hand out reporter’s notebooks andtell the students those sheets of paper arepassports into peoples’ lives. I’m not sureif I came up with that myself or heard itat some teaching conference, but the

metaphor works. (Also, before handingout all the hi-tech digital gizmos I like tomake sure the students always have apad and pen. They’ve told me they appre-ciate the old school cred when they pullout a pad and pen at a party and peopleinevitably say ‘of course—you’re thereporter.’)

Before our first trip to the nurs-ing home, I also instructed the studentson how they’ll have to earn these storiesby spending time to get past the

chronologies of a life (“I was born in 1923,on a farm…”) and into the narrative. I’mnot looking for oral histories, I insist—I’m looking for the same things that Isearched for when I started writing obitu-aries of people who’d never been in thepaper before: Not a story of what’s gone,but what remains—what it means, thelessons it teaches, the stuff that lasts.

At first, Andrew Bailey was sus-picious of us, coming in from that upscaleuniversity nearby. He said he didn’t wantto tell us the story of his life, but hewould share his wife’s story, because shecouldn’t tell it herself. Besides, he insist-ed, if it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t behere. We wouldn’t learn the full weight ofthat statement for weeks.

“Mrs. Bailey,” as he alwaysreferred to her, suffered from dementia,spending her days in the nursing homesection of the complex while he kept anapartment in the independent living sec-tion. But that didn’t mean they livedapart. He visited her at least ten times aday, and even knew exactly how far itwas from his door to her bedside: 220steps.

After we left Eliza Bryant Villagethat first day, we talked about where the

TEACHINGTIPS

Before handingout all the hi-tech gizmos

I make surethe students always have

a pad and pen



story was headed. Students caught thethemes of love and devotion, but as wespent more time with the residents, thosethemes expanded into darker spaces noteveryone was willing to reveal, but thatadd a crucial honesty that many studentsare reluctant to ask about. It’s similar, Itell them, to crushing clichés when writ-ing obituaries. When someone tells metheir loved one would have given theshirt off his back to help someone, I askthem if they ever saw them give the shirtoff their back. “No, one woman told me,but once I saw her take off her shoes andgive them to a homeless person.” That’sthe story, the image, the scene, that shat-ters the cliché. And students need to be asconfident when looking for real life intheir research—so confident that they canfollow an old man into his apartment tolearn the heart of his story.

On the next trip a week later, Mr.Bailey invited us to his apartment, wherehe opened up his scrapbook, and told usthe reasons why he wouldn’t be herewithout that woman in the hospital bed.One of the students noticed that his tablewas still set with two place settings, eventhough she would never make it backinside.

When they married 41 years ago,he said, he only thought of himself, look-ing for ways to “take, take, take” fromlife. He drank, smoked and gambled, and

people asked her, “Why don’t youdivorce that bum?”

Slowly, they saw how she toler-ated his transgressions. How she caredfor family members he ignored. Slowly,he said, by caring instead of taking, shetaught him compassion.

To prove it, he opened his closetand pulled out an ancient red unopenedpack of Pall Malls. On the corner, inSharpie marker, he had scrawled a date—the last time he smoked. Without prompt-ing, he slipped his wallet from his pocketand pulled out a fishing license. On theback, he had marked the date he took hislast drink.

He took us to his bedroom, and

lifted a bottle of perfume. “This is her fragrance,” he said.

“When she dies, the kids can have any-thing here. This is all I need.” His eyeswelled. Everyone’s did.

On the next trip, as we walkedthe 220 steps from Mr. Bailey’s door toMrs. Bailey’s bedside, the students knewhow much better the story had becomesince Mr. Bailey had invited them into hisapartment, and far beyond. How it hadtransformed from a love story to a learn-ing-how-to-love story. How the compas-sion Mrs. Bailey taught Mr. Baileyallowed him to spend these last days car-ing for her.

Upon seeing him, she smiled.She had already started forgetting him,but their rituals remained.

“Who’s the boss? Who’s theboss?” he asked her.

“I am the boss,” she said, and helaughed, again.

Just before we left, one of thestudents asked Mr. Bailey how he kept soupbeat as he saw her decline, and hereminded them of the man he used to be,and how he was so glad he never won thelottery. If he had, he said, he wouldn’t bestanding in this hospital room talking tothese young reporters.

“I’m not a rich man, I’m not apoor man,” he told them. “But I’m ahappy man.”

The story and its lessons arehardly over, but I should interrupt tomention some of the practicalities of howthis works. I met with nursing homeadministrators during the summer andshared some of my students’ past storieswith them to give them a sense of whatkinds of pieces we wanted. I made it clearthat this was a journalism project and theadministrators would not have editorialcontrol over the stories (I also completedbackground checks on the home throughpublic records (also something I couldshow students) to guard against horrorstories, though if a student uncoveredneglect we would report it). I offered toprovide DVD copies of the stories to thehome and the families.

For our textbook we use theTracy Kidder classic “Old Friends,” chron-icling his year immersed in a nursinghome. As for equipment, we’re using an

TEACHING TIPS / REPORTING IN DEPTH Continued from previous page

I completed backgroundchecks on the

home through public recordsto guard

against horror stories




RSAP PANEL ON VISIUALCULTURE AT A.L.A. CONFERENCE IN MAYThe Research Society for AmericanPeriodicals will sponsor a session on “VisualCulture and Ethnic American Periodicals” atthe American Literature Association confer-ence on 21-24 May 2015 in Boston, MA.The panel will explore how African American,Asian and Pacific American, Latino/a, andNative American periodicals engage visualculture, including by publishing comics, car-toons, illustrations,and photographs. Formore information, please contacnt AndreaWilliams at <[email protected]>.

‘PUBLISHING FEMINISMS’SYMPOSIUM AT BANFFA symposium entitled "PublishingFeminisms" will be held at the Banff Centrefor the Arts, Alberta, Canada on 17-20 May2015. The meeting will seek to expand femi-nist print culture studies, and specificallyfeminist periodical studies, by emphasizinganalyses of contemporary texts and commu-nities in the west and beyond. The goal ofthis symposium is to explore the relation-ships between feminist print culture—femi-nist presses, periodicals, glossies, zines,independents and the production and distrib-ution mechanisms through which they aresupported— and post 1960 feminisms. Formore information, please contact MichelleMeagher <[email protected]>.

CONFERENCE ON EDITING DOCUMENTSA joint conference of the Society for TextualScholarship and the Association for Docu-mentary Editing entitled "Convergences andDivergences" will be held at University ofNebraska-Lincoln on 17-20 June 2015. Themeeting will explore all aspects of documen-tary editing and textual scholarship, includingthe discovery, editing, annotation, analysis,teaching and publication of texts from manydisciplines, including history, literature, clas-sics, musicology, philosophy, paleography,codicology, linguistics, art history, the historyof science, library and information science,film studies, gender and sexuality studies,ethnic studies and more. We invite proposalsfrom students. For more information, pleaseuse the following link: <http://go.unl.edu/>.

TEACHING TIPS / CONTEXT Continued from Page 26

TEACHING TIPS / REPORTING IN DEPTH Continued from previous page

array of tools—relatively cheap Canonvideocameras, Zoom H1 and wirelessmics shared among partners. Some stu-dents bring their DSLRs from the campusnewspaper, others use camera phones.The students team up to produce anaudio slideshow, short video and writtenstory along with reflections to questionsthey can answer in video or writtendiaries. I use the university’s subscriptionto Lynda.com to teach them the editingsoftware they choose, which allows me tofocus less on teaching button pushing andmore on storytelling—complemented bythe online training at MediaStorm.com.

On the last day of class, studentspresent their stories to the residents at a

reactions and, yes, on the concept andeffect of context.

In our teaching, what might aheightened awareness of context yield?Recognizing that literary journalism uti-lizes and sometimes emphasizes contextin its creation and content seems like agood place to start. And while there is atendency to talk about narrative journal-ism as an entity that propels and beguilesthe reader on its own, we should still bemindful of the complexities of reading. Itmay be true that such prose is alluring,but it is also true that every reader andreading situation affects interpretation.

My own bias is that reading and writingare dialectical activities involving a subtleinterplay of observation, reaction or utter-ance, and interpretation. Acknowledgingthese interactive processes is also essen-tial because students, now long accus-tomed to reading on the Web, often haveless developed skills for discerning con-text; the ease of digital access and lack ofphysical presence can make texts seem alltoo interchangeable. Learning to unpackthose contexts—real and virtual—is tobegin to complicate and refine a sense ofwhere we are and where reading literaryjournalism can take us. ©

formal event where families and otherresidents are invited. Some of the resi-dents have said they feel like movie stars,and I’ve seen their grown children crywhen the students talk about whatthey’ve learned.

One week after our last inter-view with Mr. Bailey, I received an emailupdate from the nursing home. After see-ing Mrs. Bailey’s declining health, weexpected she would die soon, and wor-ried about how Mr. Bailey would face theinevitable. The students had almost fin-ished their stories. Then I opened the e-mail.

Andrew Bailey died unexpected-ly in his sleep, the message said, of appar-ent heart failure. His wife would die afew months later. Together, however, theyleft us with a story we’ll all tell for therest of our lives, and the importance ofcaring enough to find it, earn it and keepit.

Sometimes, it’s only two hun-dred and twenty steps away. ©

Jim Sheeler holds the Shirley WormserEndowed Chair of Journalism and MediaWriting at Case Western Reserve University.He won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writingin 2006 and is the author of Obit (Penguin)and Final Salute (Penguin Press), which wasa finalist for the 2008 National Book Award.






PPRREESSIIDDEENNTTNorman S imsUnivers i t y o f Massachuset ts , Amhers t77 Back Ashue lo t RoadWinchester, NH 03470U.S.A.h/[email protected]

FFIIRRSSTT VVIICCEE PPRREESS IIDDEENNTTIsabe l SoaresTUn ivers idade de L isboaIns t i tu to Super io r de C iênc ias Soc ia is e Po l í t i casPó lo Un ivers i tá r io do A l to da A juda, Rua A lmer indo Lessa1300-663 L isboaPORTUGALw/[email protected] l i sboa.p t

SSEECCOONNDD VVIICCEE PPRREESS IIDDEENNTTThomas B. Conner yUn ivers i t y o f S t . Thomas Depar tment o f Communica t ion and Journa l i sm2115 Summit Ave.St . Pau l , MN 55105U.S.A.w/+1-651-962-5265, h/+1-651-647-0048, fax/+1-651-962-6360tbconner y@st thomas.edu

TTRREEAASSUURREERRBi l l Reyno ldsRyerson Un ivers i t ySchoo l o f Journa l i sm, 350 V ic to r ia S t .Toronto , Ontar io M5B 2K3CANADAw/+1-416-979-5000 x6294, h/+1-416-535-0892reyno [email protected]

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CCHHAAIIRR,, AACCLLAA OORRGGAANNIIZZIINNGG CCOOMMMMIITTTTEEEERob A lexanderBrock Un ivers i t yDepar tment o f Eng l i sh Languages and L i te ra tureSt . Ca thar ines , Ontar io L2S 3A1CANADAw/+905-688-5550 x3886ra [email protected]

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Dav id AbrahamsonNor thwestern Un ivers i t yMed i l l Schoo l o f Journa l i sm, 1845 Sher idan Rd.Evanston, IL 60208U.S.A.w/+1-847-467-4159, h/+1-847-332-2223, fax/+1-847-332-1088d-abrahamson@nor thwestern .edu

CCHHAAIIRR,, GGRRAADDUUAATTEE SSTTUUDDEENNTT CCOOMMMMIITTTTEEEETob ias Eberwe inTechn ische Un ivers i tä t DresdenIns t i tu t fü r Kommunika t ionswissenschaf tZe l lescher Weg 17D-01069 DresdenGERMANYw/+49-351-463-35484, fax/+49-351-463-37067tob ias .eberwe [email protected]

MMEEMMBBEERRSS,, NNOOMMIINNAATT IINNGG CCOOMMMMIITTTTEEEE ( inc ludes F IRST V ICE PRESIDENT)Thomas B. Conner yUn ivers i t y o f S t . Thomas Depar tment o f Communica t ion and Journa l i sm2115 Summit Ave.St . Pau l , MN 55105U.S.A.w/+1-651-962-5265, h/+1-651-647-0048, fax/+1-651-962-6360tbconner y@st thomas.edu

Isabe l le Meure tUn ivers i té L ib re de Bruxe l lesCampus du So lbosch, ULB CP123, avenue F.D. Rooseve l t 501050 Bruxe l lesBELGIUMw/+32- (0 )2-650-4061, fax/+32- (0 )2-650-2450imeure t@ulb .ac .be

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IALJS OFFICERS AND CHAIRS, 2014-2016



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MMEEMMBBEERRSS,, BBOOAARRDD OOFF AADDVVIISSOORRSSJohn Bak ( f ound ing pres ident )Un ivers i té de Lor ra ineCent re de Té lé-ense ignement Un ivers i ta i re (CTU)54015 Nancy FRANCEw/+33- (0 )383-968-448, h/+33- (0 )383-261-476, fax/+33- (0 )383-968-449john.bak@univ-nancy2. f r

Jo Bech-Kar lsenB I Norweg ian Bus iness Schoo lDepar tment o f Communica t ion , Cu l tu re and LanguagesN-0442 Os lo NORWAYw/+47-90-566-907 jo .bech-kar lsen@bi .no

Susan GreenbergUn ivers i t y o f RoehapmptonDepar tment o f Eng l i sh and Creat i ve Wr i t ing80 Roehampton LaneLondon SW15 5PHUNITED K INGDOMw/+44-20-8392-3257 s .g [email protected] .uk

John Har tsock( found ing ed i to r, L i te rar y Journa ism Stud ies )S ta te Un ivers i t y o f New York Co l lege a t Cor t landDepar tment o f Communica t ion S tud iesCor t land, NY 13045U.S.A.w/+1-607-753-4103, h/+1-607-749-6756, fax/607-753-5970har tsock j@cor t land.edu

Richard Lance Keeb leUn ivers i t y o f L inco lnL inco ln Schoo l o f Journa l i sm, Bray ford Poo lL inco ln LN6 7TSUNITED K INGDOMw/+44- (0 )1522-886-940rkeeb le@l inco ln .ac .uk

Jenny McKayUn ivers i t y o f Sunder landResearch Cent re fo r Med ia and Cu l tu ra l S tud iesSunder land SR6 0DD, Scot landUNITED K INGDOMw/+44- (0 )191-515-2157jenny.mckay@sunder land.ac .uk

John J . Pau lyMarquet te Un ivers i t yD ieder ich Co l lege o f Commuica t ionMi lwaukee, WI 53201U.S.A.w/+1-414-288-3588, ce l l /+1-414-313-7949. fax/414-288-6400john.pau ly@marquet te .edu

A l ice Donat Tr indadeUn ivers idade de L isboaIns t i tu to Super io r de C iênc ias Soc ia is e Po l í t i casPó lo Un ivers i tá r io do A l to da A juda, Rua A lmer indo Lessa1300-663 L isboaPORTUGALw/+351-213-619-430, fax/+351-213-619-442at r [email protected] l i sboa.p t

Doug UnderwoodUnivers i t y o f Wash ingtonDepar tment o f Communica t ion , Box 353740Seat t le , WA 98195U.S.A.w/[email protected] ington.edu


IALJS OFFICERS AND CHAIRS, 2014-2016 Continued from previous page


Continued on Page 21

Many members of IALJS teachspecialized courses in writingjournalism and literary journal-

ism, honing their students’ skills inreporting and reflection. At my smallinstitution, where I am obliged to con-

tribute to many areas ofthe undergraduate cur-riculum—from general-education seminars toSpanish-language class-es to advanced litera-ture—I am still waitingto teach a course whol-ly devoted to literaryjournalism. So, givenmy interests, I have hadto be crafty to find waysto include literary jour-

nalism in a variety of classes. That con-straint, however, has also been an oppor-tunity to observe how students confrontdifferent material and to reconsider theimportance of context when reading andinterpreting.

In an academic setting, readingas coursework forces the issue of context.And course design shapes reading longbefore our students approach any text;reading Don Quixote in a class on the riseof the novel will never be the same asreading Don Quixote in a class on heroismand contemporary Latin American poli-tics. The context of any course, therefore,

LITERARY JOURNALISMTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIESSPRING 2015 VOL. 9 NO. 2

obviously alters the way individuals in itread, and nudges (if not requires) them toconsider how and why such ideas andwritings have come together in that par-ticular content and format; in addition,the members of any academic discussioncreate their own context by virtue of whothey are and when and where the classoccurs.

But beyond the classic classroomcontext, things get a bit more interesting.Given that literary journalism deals with

real events and real people written aboutby an identified author, I think we cansafely agree that there are actually a fewmore contexts to consider. First, the con-tent and the characters have a context,and the writer (often openly) has a con-text, and the book or the text as a pub-lished thing has a context as well for for-mat, audience, and even the language in

CONTEXT MAY BE THE KEY TO TRUE UNDERSTANDINGTaking students beyond the text on the page produces wonderful results.

By Mileta Roe, Bard College at Simon's Rock (U.S.A.)

which it is written.This past semester, in a class on

Perspectives of Latin America for Spanish-language students, I included some narra-tive nonfiction readings. Frequently theauthor and content were previouslyunknown to the students. Among thesereadings were some short texts written bynative witnesses to the fall of Tenochtitlanin the early sixteenth century. Before dis-cussing the work in class, I encouragedstudents to think about who was writing,who seemed to be the intended audience,what kind of writing it was, and whichspecific descriptions and phrases dis-played a particular perspective aboutwhat had happened, and then to notetheir own reactions. Students noticed thesubjective commentary on events, wereaffected by the descriptions and humanresponses to the events, and appreciatedthe artful language. In our discussionstudents were able to make the connec-tion that these bits of memoir bore resem-blance both to journalism and to historywriting, but they agreed the texts weremost memorable for their storytelling andvoices. After being reminded that the nar-ratives in Spanish they were working sohard to read were actually translated fromthe original Nahuatl, the students foundadditional reasons to reflect on their own

TEACHINGTIPS


I encouragestudents to think about

who was writingand who seemed to be the

intended audience.

Documents

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS Literary jourNAl i s m · Thursday,7May2015 Sign in 8.00 – 9.00 Pick up conference materials Session 1 9.00 – 9.15 Welcome and Introduction Session