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REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

By Jerome Weeks
July 31, 2005

Last weekend, Susan Orlean, the author of The Orchid Thief, urged literary journalists to risk their dignity for a good story: “I don’t do war reporting, but I think allowing a 10-year-old boy to shoot dog food at your butt deserves some recognition.”

Paul Hendrickson, meanwhile, was as spellbinding as a preacher. He described the long legacy of racism he uncovered for Sons of Mississippi — a book inspired by a single photo of seven sheriffs in 1962. He advised his listeners to take similar leaps of faith, to get out and do the research: “If you go, the story will happen. It’s not an immutable law of journalism, but it’s damned close.”

And my Dallas Morning News colleagues, BillMarvel and Dave Tarrant, surprised me twice in discussing the mechanics of writing narrative journalism: They were entertaining, and I actually learned something from them.

So we can count the first Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference held by the University of North Texas a success. A sold-out crowd of more than 250 attended the talks and panels: UNT student, working reporters, would-be writers. A healthy start.

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