Author: true mag admin

a loaf of challah with old swedish handwritten text written overlaidT
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The Conversations We Weren’t Meant to Hear

"As both a nonfiction writer and novelist, I've discovered that these overheard conversations contain the most authentic speech, revealing their generational differences and cultural identities."
A photograph of orange California poppies (Genthe photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division) overlaid with a fuzzy photograph of a fire burning high.G
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Gathering Speed and Complexity

A Primer for Craft in Literary Journalism: "In this understanding, craft has a bigger job to do than to enthrall or entertain, to make a true story read like fiction or feel like fantasy. In this understanding, creativity is part of the journalism, working in service to ideas, not in service of earning a label. We can’t separate the literary from the journalism at all."
two photos of a canal in amsterdam--one during the day, one during the night--overlayed on each other so that day or night evokes the memory of the other.W
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Writing on Memory, Considering When To Do So

"All genres have a central expectation, and that of memoir is wisdom," writes Kutlay in this meditation on history, memory, and writing about ourselves.
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The Secret to Everything

[First Runner-Up 2018 Proximity Essay Prize] Here in the last slip of rural country near Raleigh, I drive slowly down a gravel road, unsure if I’m going in the right direction. The road gradually becomes dirt: two tire ruts divided by a hump of grass. Sparse rows of pine trees line both sides of the narrow road. I’m a social worker, and I’m making an early morning visit, a new referral to start the day. This one a possible suicide case—I hate suicide cases.
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Already We Are Less Than Ever Before

[Winner of the 2018 Proximity Essay Prize] Fereidoun M. Esfandiary hypothesized the sun was the heart of utopia. He changed his name to FM-2030 to mark the year he’d turn 100. Interviewed by Larry King, FM-2030 wears a heavy white robe and says his new name is “neat.
This is a blue and green image depicting an obscure image underwater.S
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Swim Lessons

[Runner-Up for the 2024 Proximity Prize] They checked our military IDs as they stood in camouflage outside our high school and slung M-16 machine guns around their shoulders. And their eyes lingered a little too long on shy, sophomore girls standing in line. 
This is an image of pink and orange tulips in full bloom in a field. The tulips are starting to wither at the end of the bloom cycle.M
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Motherlove and Memory

[Winner of the 2024 Proximity Prize] Not much can prepare you for the day when you greet your mother and she pulls back in alarm. When you place your hand gently on her shoulder, look into her eyes, and she returns your gaze with suspicion and fear. When saying "It's me," fails to suggest a hint of familiarity. 
AN image of a ship with a historic map of mobile bay and the coast of Alabama overlayed with a green tingeH
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How To Make Narrative Nonfiction Span Centuries 

Laura Tillman speaks with Nick Tabor about his debut narrative nonfiction book "Africatown," which spans centuries yet feels effortless in its telling.
a photo of the front range mountains in snow with a photograph of Barrel cactus in bloom from Hovenweep National Monument, 05/1972 overlayed. Cactus flower is U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-2398C
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Circling Back: Return and Recursivity in Nature-Based Memoir

"All memory is a circling back to moments of earlier experience," writes Kayann Short as she evaluates the importance of return in ecobiography.
a field with trees in the distance overlaid on an image of waves crashing on the shore, so the water looks green and the field looks like wavesT
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Transparency in Journalism Through the “I”

Laura Jane Willoughby talks with author Ted Conover about what it means to be an immersion reporter.