Mark Obbie's Blog, page 9
February 2, 2015
On the nightstand: Monday, 2/2/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Dashka Slater’s deft storytelling turns the examination of an unusual criminal case into a study of punishment’s limits to bring justice to victims. She tells the story of Sasha Fleischman, an … Continue reading On the nightstand: Monday, 2/2/15 →
January 30, 2015
Seeking answers close to home
Seattle Weekly has just published this long, powerful story by Nina Shapiro that addresses a question at the heart of my work: what stake victims have in the debate over reforms in sentencing and prisons. And she takes on the toughest, most complex kind of case, one in which a violent crime poses questions about … Continue reading Seeking answers close to home →
January 29, 2015
On the nightstand: Thursday, 1/29/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Jason Cherkis uses the power of longform narrative to show the failures of abstinence-only treatment of heroin addiction. Confronted with an approach that treats addiction like a failure of morals and … Continue reading On the nightstand: Thursday, 1/29/15 →
January 27, 2015
On the nightstand: Tuesday, 1/27/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Eric Moskowitz uses one Boston Marathon victim’s decision whether to have her second leg amputated to pull the reader through a fascinating, tragic story of loss and hope. Newlyweds Patrick Downs … Continue reading On the nightstand: Tuesday, 1/27/15 →
January 26, 2015
Crime victim series: coming soonish
I blog from time to time on themes related to my upcoming series on crime victims, but it’s been quite some time since I gave a detailed update on the project. The reasons are too mundane to go into here — let’s just say that when writers and editors act like they know when a long, … Continue reading Crime victim series: coming soonish →
January 23, 2015
On the nightstand: 1/23/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Johann Hari published an excerpt from his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs with an enraging and painful story of how America’s … Continue reading On the nightstand: 1/23/15 →
January 21, 2015
On the nightstand: Wednesday, 1/21/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Justin Peters challenges NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton’s reputation as a reformer with a look back at how brutality complaints got handled in his first stint in New York and in … Continue reading On the nightstand: Wednesday, 1/21/15 →
January 19, 2015
On the nightstand: Monday, 1/19/15
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Ted Conover brings his skills as a writer and observer — and his time working as a prison guard at Sing Sing, the story of which he told in his … Continue reading On the nightstand: Monday, 1/19/15 →
“Flowing from heart to hand to pen”
Although this blog’s focus is on narrative journalism, it’s worth taking a detour from nonfiction now and then — especially when the storytelling concerns one of the great true-crime narratives. BBC News Magazine has just published this essay on “the book that changed me.” The book is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. And the writer … Continue reading “Flowing from heart to hand to pen” →
January 15, 2015
ASME’s crime finalists
The National Magazine Award finalists — aka the Ellies, or the ASMEs (after the American Society of Magazine Editors) — have been announced. Given their status as the top award for magazine journalism, I’ve plucked out the reported crime narratives that made the cut. All of these appeared on this blog in my critiques (found mostly … Continue reading ASME’s crime finalists →
