New York’s Top Writers Hit Harvard Nieman Journalism Conference Dec. 2 -4, 2005 Written and Photographed by Noelle Ashley (Opposite - Tom Wolfe signs books)

The Conference

Hearing Tom Wolfe talk about Paris Hilton was one of many amusing moments at the Nieman Journalism Conference, Harvard’s three-day workshop held at the Boston Convention Center. The brilliant, white-haired author of Bonfire of the Vanities used the blonde glamour girl to prove the point that truth is stranger than fiction. He said that in a novel, a socialite would cover up her scandals. Who would have thought the porno Paris made in between parties would turn her into a successful businesswoman? The fictional version is never as crazy as the true escapades.

For a writer, finding a great story compares to meeting a husband. “It happens when you’re ready, when you stop making excuses,” said Diana Sug, the Pulitzer Prize winner and journalist at The Baltimore Sun. Wolfe’s take on writing was “You have to get inside the central nervous system of the characters.”

The audience laughed when Mark Kramer gave tips on how to edit a piece down to the best words. The author said, “Read your notes to your mom. She’s the only one who will will sit through it.”

Kramer urged writers to be open to a story’s unexpected turns: “You may discover your notes make a lousy lion but a nice lamb. You need to have that kind of flexibility.” Laurie Hertzel, co-author of They Took My Father, agreed. When a boy died under mysterious circumstances, she asked the editor, “If we don’t know what killed him, is it still a story?” In the end, the fact that no doctors could figure out what killed him was more real and satisfying than if they had.

According to Pulitzer Prize winner Tom French of The St. Petersburg Times, 90% of the people we read about are politicians, celebrities and criminals. What he enjoys most, however, is writing about the people who never get written about.

Getting Past “No Comment”

How do you convince a source to talk to you? “People open up if you find things in common,” said Eddy Harris, author of Mississippi Solo. “When they allow you access to their home, stick your foot in that door.”

Some sources are happy to share their thoughts – you just have to ask. Tom French entered a middle school to penetrate the students’ secret lives. He worried whether kids would see him as too old to talk to. As he quickly discovered, “To 13-year- olds, if you’re over 20, it’s all the same: you’re over the hill.”

He gathered information on the configuration of tables in the lunch room, the ultimate power scene for people too young to drive. The girls let him sit in on cafeteria gossip and he found out that every week they pick a favorite boy, and then they choose the cutest boy of the year. He was also privy to the boys’ table, where challenges take place, from eating contests to stuffing things up their nose.

The sources were so open that French read the notes passed between one girl and her friends. Other reporters asked him, “How did you get those notes? Oh, my God! Did you steal them from a kid’s backpack?”

Of course, French committed no crime. He simply asked to see them.

Whom Do Writers Read?

One interesting question was; whom do top writers consider the top writers?

Philip Gourevitch, editor of The Paris Review, expressed high regards for Freakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chain, called Dispatches by Michael Hare “the best piece of journalism from the Vietnam War.” He praised the narrative work of John McPhee, who imbues his New Yorker profiles with yet another human sense: motion. Whether he is riding with a truck driver across the country or canoeing down the Delaware River with a guy who eats plants, he captures his subjects in action.

Sometimes the speakers praised each other. In a light-hearted discussion about writing from your feelings, The Star-Ledger’s Amy Ellis Nutt told French, “You’re very much in touch with your feminine side.” He responded by running his fingers through his gray hair, and the audience laughed.

Watch What You Write

What not to do is an important lesson. When Nutt interviewed a scientist and wrote about his incredible achievements, she made a grave mistake. She described him as short and well-built. He never talked to her again.

“I thought it was a compliment that I called the man well-built, but he wanted to sue the newspaper,” Nutt said. On the other hand, she wrote scathing portraits of people who found the pieces flattering. She shook her head and concluded, “Never call a man short in print!”

In response, Harris protested, “Hey! Why are you looking in my direction?”

The back and forth banter kept the conference lively and fun.