{"id":16298,"date":"2025-10-24T12:57:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=16298"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:57:38","slug":"surprise-is-magic-in-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2025\/10\/24\/surprise-is-magic-in-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Surprise is magic in journalism\u2019"},"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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***<\/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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In this newsletter, we often grapple with how and when a journalist brings their own voice and experience into their stories. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The truth is, the narrator is always there, guiding us along. But in what ways do they reveal themselves to the reader? <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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This week’s Nieman Storyboard podcast guest<\/a>, author Claudia Rowe, set out to write a work of narrative nonfiction about the failures of the American foster care system. She knew she wanted to tell it through the eyes of former foster youth, but she also needed to understand how her own voice could weave all the threads together into a compelling narrative. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I moved pieces around for a long time. The difficult parts of the book for me were structure and voice. What exactly was my narrator voice? If I want the kids to be telling their story, where is that narrator persona? This is difficult. But I think essentially what happened is I ended up structuring the book the way I discovered the answers for the questions I was trying to find \u2026 like following a thread or little breadcrumbs, or unraveling a mystery. I had questions, and I’m assuming the reader will have the same questions, and here is me trying to figure them out. And that was where I kind of got the narrator persona.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n \n

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I’m just going to be, \u201cOkay, I’m not the genius reporter who knows everything. I’m trying to figure this out just like anybody is.\u201d And that [means] maybe I don’t look smart on every page. Maybe a reader goes, \u201cDidn’t you know that? Why wouldn’t you know that? You’re a reporter.\u201d Um, well, no, I didn’t know it. We’re not magic and we only know what we know by figuring it out. And so the figuring out is going to be part of this story.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The end result is \u201cWards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care,\u201d<\/a> which was published in May and has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award for nonfiction<\/a>. On the Storyboard podcast, Rowe shares lessons for journalists about trauma-informed reporting and working with young people to tell their stories, and how to cover a system that makes it difficult to obtain public information in the first place.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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National Book Award finalist Claudia Rowe on writing about teens and the foster care system<\/a><\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\"Claudia<\/a>
Claudia Rowe. Photo by Meryl Schenker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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“Listen when the subject’s story seems to be veering in a direction you didn’t think it would go, and you maybe don’t want it to go. You think that you know what your story is, and you want them to speak to this, but they go over here to some other place entirely. Let it happen. It’s a difficult thing to do. It requires relinquishing control, and you need to let it happen because you might find a kernel of magic there. Surprise is magic in journalism, right? Surprise is the glittering stone at your feet that you didn’t expect to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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[ Read the story<\/a> ]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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