I’m not talking about “how to” books on writing. No, I want to hear the story behind the story — why they wrote this particular piece, what it means to them, how they approached the storytelling, who they interviewed, what went well, what didn’t, and why they thought the topic was important enough to write about.
So, for this inaugural Taste of the Week, I give you these bite-size “Writers on Writing” delicacies from around the web.
One Story: This American Life – The Feather Heist
“And he then said to me– he goes, well, if you think that’s crazy, you should hear about this kid who just broke into the British Museum of Natural History to steal hundreds of these exotic birds for their feathers, which he sold to Victorian salmon fly tyers, because he wanted to buy a new golden flute.”
1 hour.
One Podcast Episode: Longform – #312 Rebecca Traister
“I don’t want my experience to be held up as so, ladies, your new health regimen is rage all day. Because the fact is we live in a world that does punish women for expressing their anger, that denies them jobs, that attaches to them bad reputations as difficult-to-work-with, crazy bitches. Because they’re reasonably angry about something they have every reason to be angry about.”
75 minutes.
One Short Radio Interview: CBC – Why Kagiso Lesego Molope’s books reflect her South African heritage
“There is definitely a culture of forgetting in South Africa. It’s almost as if everything wrong with the country started post-apartheid started in 1994, which is not true of course. I feel very strongly that we are the ones to tell the stories of of that period. If we don’t tell them, they will be lost.”
15 minutes.
One Written Interview: The Open Notebook – Brooke Jarvis Uncovers an Insect Armageddon
“One of the big challenges of feature writing is that, often, what you write about has already been in the news. The question is always whether it’s been in the news enough, whether it’s been covered in an in-depth way, whether it’s really gotten through to people. If you’re following science news, you’ll come across horrifying studies about climate change or biodiversity die-offs three times a week—and then it’s on to the next thing and it’s forgotten.”
2500 words.
One TED Talk: The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Adichie
“I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara, watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. I remember first feeling slight surprise. And then, I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had become one thing in my mind, the abject immigrant. I had bought into the single story of Mexicans and I could not have been more ashamed of myself.”
20 minutes.
