{"id":14443,"date":"2025-02-21T14:07:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T14:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=14443"},"modified":"2025-02-21T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T14:21:11","slug":"elon-green-journalism-privilege-to-learn-as-you-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2025\/02\/21\/elon-green-journalism-privilege-to-learn-as-you-go\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Journalism is the privilege to learn as you go’"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter,<\/em><\/a> delivered every Friday in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Dear Storyboard community,<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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This week we’re excited to welcome back Elon Green as a contributor to Storyboard. He’s a journalist and author of two books, “Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York”<\/a> and the forthcoming “The Man Nobody Killed: Life, Death, and Art in Michael Stewart’s New York.”<\/a> <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As we were brainstorming ideas for Storyboard, I asked him about his favorite nonfiction books of the last few years. His immediate reply: “The Barn,”<\/a> by Wright Thompson, an account of the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. Thompson’s book began as a story in The Atlantic<\/a> and grew into a deeper history of the South and the forces that led to the horrific crime.  <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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How did Thompson do it? Green believes you can learn a lot about how an author works \u2014 ranging from their book-proposal and reporting processes to the loved ones who sustain them \u2014 by looking at their acknowledgments pages. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Sure enough, Thompson offers Green some excellent insights and moving personal stories about how he reported and wrote the book. Read the full story here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In Green’s own acknowledgments for his new book, he writes that “at its most gratifying, journalism is the privilege to learn as you go.” And he looks back on his early interviews and story annotations for Nieman Storyboard<\/a> \u2014 interviewing everyone from Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah to Roger Angell \u2014 as his own version of a J-school education. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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“That’s how I learned to report, research, and write,” Green told me. “Instead of studying the work of the greats in an academic setting, I got to ask them about it myself \u2014 a priceless experience.”<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Subscribe to Storyboard<\/h2>\n \n
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Get insights into the craft of journalism and storytelling in your inbox, delivered on Fridays.<\/p>\n

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Links of note <\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\"Columbia<\/a><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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