Read, Write, Finch

Category: Journalism

  • Sometimes the Story Is People Taking Care of Each Other

    Sometimes the Story Is People Taking Care of Each Other

    I went to a friend’s celebration of life this week, and I’ve been thinking about community ever since. He was one of those people who just seemed to understand it. He showed up. He connected people. He cared about what happened around him and to the people around him. He made community feel less like…

  • Who Said a Midlife Crisis Was a Bad Thing?

    Who Said a Midlife Crisis Was a Bad Thing?

    I decided to blow up my life. In reality, I rebuilt it while I was still living in it. A letter arrived in the mail recently addressed in my own handwriting. There is something mildly alarming about seeing your name written by you on an envelope you do not remember sending. Then I opened it.…

  • Public Trust Needs More Than Public Meetings

    Public Trust Needs More Than Public Meetings

    There is a particular kind of frustration I keep hearing in local conversations. People are trying to understand choices that affect their neighborhood, their safety, their taxes, their land, their school or their sense of home. Too often, they feel like they are piecing together the why after the fact, usually from a mix of…

  • The Strange, Lovely Thing About Being Seen

    The Strange, Lovely Thing About Being Seen

    I am going to say something that feels deeply Midwestern and wildly uncomfortable: I won an award. There. I said it. Specifically, I received the Excellence in Creative Expression Award from the English and College Readiness Department at Washtenaw Community College. Even typing that makes me want to add three disclaimers, two self-deprecating jokes and…

  • Copy Editing Manifesto

    Copy Editing Manifesto

    Copy editing is some of the most important work in publishing, and some of the least glamorous. Nobody throws a parade because you caught the wrong date in paragraph seven or fixed a sentence that was one clause away from wandering into traffic. The work is quiet. It is easy to underestimate. And it matters…

  • What Stays in the Notebook

    What Stays in the Notebook

    One of the funny things about journalism is how much never makes it into the story. Not because it is not important. A lot of the time, it is exactly what sticks with me. A finished news story has a job to do. It needs to be clear, fair and focused. It needs to tell…