My rule is extreme and increasingly unpopular. I say everything in non-fiction should be true. You don’t get to make anything up. Authors talk about “different kinds of truth,” or say their memoirs, “explore the slipperiness of memory.” That’s self-serving nonsense. They know what truth is. They change things to make the story better or …
Generations pass on funny stories and family myths without really trying. That’s not what I’m talking about. The truth is perishable. You lose it if you don’t take time to seriously record the memories of your elders. Heirlooms become junk without their history and the people in old family photos become anonymous strangers without names …
In this dark time for our country, we could use the progressive, unifying influence of the mainline Protestant churches, which have largely lost their membership and influence over the last 50 years. Bill McKibben charts this decline as part of the collapse of the change movements of the 1960s in his recent, perfectly titled book, …
I’m OK with anything you do with the English language that makes it more expressive and doesn’t sacrifice its logic (such as it is). But often, new ways of using English make sentences weaker, less communicative, and wimpy. I’m experiencing that with people using ‘experience’ as a verb. “The patient is experiencing pain.” That should …
The death two weeks ago of my father-in-law, Mark Rowland, got me thinking about where writing talent comes from. He was a respected judge, a pilot, and a legendary outdoorsman, and he crafted exquisite letters, written with a fountain pen on fine stationary, using elegant prose that despite its perfection also conveyed powerful emotions, connection, …
It was a weird feeling to have my former boss and old friend portrayed on television in an eerily perfect copy of his real look and mannerisms. Even the conference room where we used to meet was faithfully reproduced on the ABC series, “Alaska Daily.” Anchorage Daily News editor David Hulen is far from famous. …
For all the attention paid to keeping traditional media alive, not much has been said about how to keep an audience for the survivors. Even where newspapers survive, their readership has shrunk to a small, narrow fraction of what it was when democracy was healthier. And that could be decisive in the next presidential election. …
Dr. David Nash and I had thought Covid had killed our book idea. But in August of 2020, we simultaneously realized the opposite was true. Covid perfectly framed what we wanted to say. And so began one of the most satisfying collaborations of my career, as co-author with a brilliant mind whose skills and knowledge …
Among the great (and some hilariously awful) editors I have worked with over the decades, Rebecca Saletan was among the best. From her I learned how I should work with writers. An audacious move got my first book accepted and assigned to Becky at the most prestigious and storied independent publisher still around at the …
Christine Cunningham explained to me the choice she made between being a vegetarian and a hunter. For her, the two choices were not far apart: they were both about integrity. The integrity of Christine’s writing, and that of her partner Steve Meyer, lights the pages of their book, The Land We Share: A love affair …
