New workshop log: What the Ethics Tree Taught Me.
'I wrote twelve because it sounded better than 'a young girl.' That is not a lie. It is a guess. A guess has no place in a scene that claims to be true.'
#WritingCommunity #Literaryjournalism #SouthAfrica
New workshop log: The AitsamaClassroom
I sat in a converted garage in Concordia. A blind teacher. A young girl learning to speak a language her great-grandparents were punished for speaking.
The lens paragraph is not a confession. It is a contract.
#WritingCommunity #LiteraryJournalism
The most interesting thing in the room is usually ignored.
The dust motes, the clock ticking, the way someone holds their pen.
That's often where the truth hides.
Not in the argument, but in the silence between words.
The trick is to learn to observe it.
#WritingCommunity #LiteraryJournalism
Tracy Kidder Dies at 80: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Soul of a New Machine,' has died in Boston at 80. Lear...
#TracyKidder #SoulOfANewMachine #Pulitzer #LiteraryJournalism #MountainsBeyondMountains
https://scrollworthy.org/trending/tracy-kidder
A top-down, close-up photograph of six small, weathered stones arranged in a deliberate but organic 'scatter' on a textured, neutral surface. The lighting is soft, highlighting the unique grains, cracks, and earthy tones of each pebble. One stone sits slightly apart from the main cluster, symbolizing a detail left behind to keep a narrative focused
I’ve been thinking about the 'sixth stone', the detail that didn't make the cut to keep the narrative focused.
In today’s Gallery piece, I explore the ethics of what we leave behind in our reporting.
substack.com/@benmarvan1/...
#WritingCommunity #LiteraryJournalism
'Meaning is not only in what is built. It is in what is left behind.'
'The Sixth Stone' is now out.
A study in Northern Cape history, the 'scatter' of the Nama, and the philosophy of the unfinished.
#Longreads #SouthAfrica #LiteraryJournalism #WritingCommunity
A vertical digital book-cover style graphic for a Substack article titled 'The Sixth Stone'. The top half features a sun-drenched, pink-orange granite mountain face under a clear sky. The bottom half is a dark, silhouetted foreground where the text is placed. The text reads: 'The Sixth Stone: On scatter, stack, and silence in the Bergsig gap' followed by the author name 'ben marvan'
My new essay (out tomorrow) explores the Nama principle of 'scatter': how meaning lives in the traces we leave behind, rather than the monuments we build.
Dropping Sunday morning on Substack.
#SouthAfrica #LiteraryJournalism #WritingCommunity #Longreads
A shallow-focus, close-up photograph of scattered quartz and granite pebbles on dry earth. The stones are rounded and smooth, ranging from translucent white and smoky grey to pale pink. They are bathed in soft, natural light, reflecting the 'scatter' mentioned in the essay.
Walking the old road to Springbok. It is a path of ghosts and quartz. I am currently finishing a piece on the Nama principle of 'scatter'—how meaning lives in what we leave behind.
Dropping the full essay on Substack this Sunday.
#SouthAfrica #LiteraryJournalism #WritingCommunity
New workshop log: What a neighbour taught me about the architecture of listening.
I asked where he walked today. He said: 'To the koppie. Because my wife is there.'
A reflection on geography, grief, and the 'Seven Second Rule'. 1/3
#SouthAfrica #LiteraryJournalism #SlowJournalism
The Ethical Question
I saw footprints at the cairn. Or did I?
My notes said nothing.
So the essay says: 'depressions that could be footprints.'
If I'm not certain, I say so.
Read about it this Sunday. Link in profile
#Namaqualand #LiteraryJournalism #SouthAfricanStories
He was not on the stoep today.
I looked for him: that is new.
Before, the empty chair was invisible.
Now the absence registers.
I don’t know where he is and have no right to.
Observation does not grant access.
Absence is also data.
#Namaqualand #LiteraryJournalism #SouthAfricanStories
The stacked stones say:
This is what I made.
The sixth says:
This is what I did not use.
Look for what’s missing.
That is where the story lives.
This Sunday, one unused stone opens into generations of memory.
Subscribe to link in profile.
#Namaqualand #LiteraryJournalism #SouthAfricanStories
The full essay: how two weeks of drills taught me to read one page of a master.
It is not about inventing meaning.
It is about gathering loaded details until the truth stands on its own. 3/3
#LiteraryJournalism #WritingCommunity
The three hooks:
1️⃣ Character: 'Green headscarf, orange coiled in one long strip.'
2️⃣ Atmosphere: 'Dust, diesel, Amapiano.'
3️⃣ Action: 'She did not look up.'
The hook decides what you see. Which one would make you stop scrolling?
#LiteraryJournalism #WritingCommunity
For today's syllabi Sunday, we're focusing on Walters's "Memoir and Journal Writing" course from University of Minnesota Duluth.
Read the full syllabus here: buff.ly/4Dmdk0j
Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash
#AssayJournal #SyllabiSunday #nonfiction #memoir #journal #CNF #literaryjournalism
Gay Talese's legendary 1966 Sinatra profile, New Journalism pioneer still inspiring writers today
❖
Le portrait légendaire de Sinatra par Gay Talese (1966), pionnier du New Journalism qui inspire encore #newjournalism #literaryjournalism
Happy (𝟭𝟬𝟳th) birthday, Lillian #Ross!🎂🥳👏 [°June 8, 1918 – Sept. 20, 2017]🌹😔🕯️
#LiteraryJournalism #HereButNotHere #TheNewYorker #WilliamShawn #WilliamChon #IrvingHowe #JeromeDSalinger #ErnestHemingway #JohnHuston #DavidRemnick #EdnaRosenson #LillianRosovsky #LillianRoss
📖🔥 Author of the Day: Norman Mailer & The Armies of the Night 🏛️✊
www.instagram.com/p/DFfbZWVumY...
#NormanMailer #BookOfTheDay #LiteraryJournalism #VietnamWar #TheArmiesOfTheNight #HistoryAsANovel
Are there enough of us here who study #literaryjournalism to make a starter pack? What do you think @klerner.bsky.social?
His best in my opinion. #EdenWalk #literaryjournalism https://x.com/DigitalnomadRob/status/701642925151645698
His best in my opinion. #EdenWalk #literaryjournalism https://x.com/DigitalnomadRob/status/701642925151645698
To any academics, journalists, and educators out there studying #literaryjournalism, I've started a Slack grp. DM me!
