Who, how and what? Storytelling 08
I was first introduced to new journalism, or narrative journalism, during my high school exchange year at Princeton Day School in New Jersey in 1981–82. Reading Tom Wolfe and Michael Herr as a history class assignment put me on a path that I’m still on. Back then, as a 17-year old school boy I decided that real was cool. The better it was told, the more real it felt. Since then great writing has never meant an escape to me, it has always meant an intense relationship with the reality.
Bonnier Publications, the publisher of Olivia and Divaani magazines, is organizing a seminar on narrative journalism called Storytelling 08 on Thursday November 6th. The seminar will feature two Pulizer Prize winning Americans, Thomas French and Jacqueline Banaszynski, and a few local fans of the genre, including me that I have the honor of giving the first presentation of the day. I’ve been given the title: What should we learn from American journalism?
I will be talking about the concepts of craft, journey and community, in American society and in American journalism. I think these concepts also capture the big questions of who you are, how to do your work, and what your job actually is. A narrative journalist is a craftsman reporting on the journey of an individual or/and a community or a society. When you do this, when your stories take your readers on journeys in the the world they belong to, you are actually crafting that world. This is an intense relationship with the reality.
I look forward, not only to a great and much needed seminar, but also to its impact on Finnish journalism. And, hopefully, reality.