The Footprints in the Text

How do we keep an eye on process behind the product of literary journalism? I should start by acknowledging that I came to literary journalism studies per se (hereafter LJS) through something of a side-door:  from American Studies, where I had been most recently writing about police power. And aside from an unabashedly partisan stint…

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New Insights on Orwell as a Literary Journalist

George Orwell is one of the most researched authors on the planet. But immerse yourself in the man’s life and writings and new insights emerge. Since becoming a sub-editor on my local newspaper in Nottingham in 1970, and being inspired by George Orwell, the wonderfully creative and radical, committed journalist, I had always wanted to…

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Torturous Paths for Historical Research

Beyond a normative ontology of literary journalism *Editor’s note: This article is from our archives. It originally appeared in Literary Journalism vol. 12, no. 3 (2018).  The aim of this text is two-fold. On the one hand, I want to give an account of my doctoral research project. On the other hand, this is a…

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Literary Journalism in Japan

*Editor’s note: This article is from our archives. It originally appeared in Literary Journalism vol. 4, no. 4 (2010). Virtually all literary varieties known in the Western world—novels, poems, dramas—exist in Japan in some form, with some dating back to the eleventh century, when the popular Tale of Genji was produced. Likewise, journalism’s various forms…

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“In Dialogue with a Living, Breathing Tradition”: a Foreword to The Routledge Companion to American Literary Journalism

*Editor’s note: The Routledge Companion to American Literary Journalism is an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and international study of American literary journalism, written and edited by many longtime members of the IALJS. We’re republishing the book’s foreword to commemorate its new availability in paperback.  American academia and journalism have long had an awkward relationship. An offspring of…

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