The Reported Essay is a newsletter for anyone interested in narrative nonfiction, literary journalism, feature writing, longform storytelling, reported essays, freelancing for magazines and other publications, and storytelling craft (specifically nonfiction). I regularly post writing advice and tips, as well as longform Q&As with accomplished feature editors and writers.

About Me

I’m a journalist based in Southern California with feature stories published in The New York Times & The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Cut, Wired, The Atlantic, The Verge, Men’s Health, MIT Technology Review, InStyle, Elle, The Smithsonian, National Geographic, Marie Claire, Glamour, Foreign Policy, Slate, The New Republic, Narratively, Newsweek, Time, and others. 

I’ve written two narrative nonfiction books: THE DEATH CLASS (Simon & Schuster), and SOMEWHERE SISTERS (Algonquin Books, Hachette). I am currently working on my third book, COLLEGE TOWN (Algonquin Books, Hachette). 

I spent nearly a decade as a staff metro and national writer for the Los Angeles Times, and the last 15 years as a professor at the University of California, Irvine, in the Literary Journalism Program, where I teach classes on writing narratives off the news, multimedia storytelling, health, science and medical narratives, and writing on identity.