Alizeh Kohari on Finding the Longform Idea
It was such a treat to guest edit The Sunday Long Read last week. I hope you enjoy the selections as much as I did. I highlighted pieces that exemplify great story ideas, reporting, and craft. Thanks to the SLR editors for inviting my picks, and to the journalists and editors out there doing such stellar work.
Recently, I posted this interview with freelance magazine writer Katia Savchuk, on finding the longform idea, a follow up to my previous two posts, which offered tips for finding narrative feature ideas.
This week, I am excited to continue our discussions on idea hunting, this time with the talented Alizeh Kohari, who was recently awarded a reporting grant from the Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism. Kari, a former Los Angeles Times colleague of mine who passed away in 2022, had a deep appreciation for storytelling and editing. Alizeh’s longform work embodies the narrative journalism that Kari championed.
Alizeh’s award-winning reporting appears in the New York Review of Books, Harper’s, Wired, The Atlantic, and other publications. Her work has also been supported by the Pulitzer Center, Internews, and the Overseas Press Club, and has been featured on Longreads and Longform.
Alizeh spent four years as a staffer at Herald, Pakistan’s oldest current-affairs magazine, where her reporting ran the gamut from mob lynchings, to mysterious peacock deaths, to a people’s history of the Indus River.
Most recently, she was an editorial coach at Global Press, a nonprofit newsroom, where she trained reporters from Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Between 2015 and 2017, she was a Fulbright scholar at NYU. In the summer in between, she worked with Reuters in Mexico City.
Alizeh discussed with me her approach to searching for stories, trusting your instincts, reporting on systems, hanging out with people who are doing interesting things, and that magical feeling when an idea finally comes together.
Hope you enjoy our interview.
