Journalism Track

Want to get the attention of an editor who assigns articles or essays regularly? And get their feedback to your pitches in person? Here’s your chance. In this popular workshop/pitch session, Estelle Erasmus has compiled a panel of prolific assigning editors, looking to fill their pages, who will assess your essays and articles in real time and share what works— and what doesn’t — and why — when you want to get your writing noticed.

Estelle Erasmus (she/her/hers) is an award-winning journalist, writing coach, and longtime ASJA member and an adjunct instructor at New York University and for Writer’s Digest. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Independent, WIRED, Huffington Post Personal, AARP the Magazine, Vox, Insider, Next Avenue, GH, Marie Claire and more. She is co-host of the Freelance Writing Direct Podcast (found on iTunes and Spotify) and was a guest judge for the Writer’s Digest 2022 Personal Writing Contest. Her book Writing that Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, and Get Published from New World Library received a “Buy this Book” review from Publisher’s Weekly. Find her on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok (each @EstelleSErasmus), and on Substack.

Evan Miller (he/him/his) is a senior editor at Guideposts magazine, where he has ghostwritten stories for hundreds of people ranging from Trisha Yearwood to a man in California who started a basketball league for kids particularly poor at athletics. He also occasionally writes for the magazine under his byline. He’s one of the editors who selects the story line-up for each edition and is the primary editor fielding pitches from freelance writers new to the magazine. Before coming to Guideposts he worked as executive editor at newspapers in Washington state, Indiana and Tennessee. He and his wife live in Connecticut.

George Mannes is an executive editor at AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin, where he focuses on personal finance. He previously worked at Money magazine and at TheStreet.com. Twitter: @dogbitesmannes

Jesse Sposato (she/her) is the deputy editor at Narratively and a freelance writer at large. She particularly likes to write and edit stories about social issues, feminism, health and wellness, culture, and friendship. She is forever working on a grief memoir and a collection of essays about coming of age in the suburbs. Her writing has appeared on Vanity Fair, InStyle, Shondaland, HuffPost, Healthline, Gloria, and many others. You can find her on Twitter here.

Daisy Prince has been an arts, entertainment, culture writer and editor for the past 20 years. Starting in the UK at Tatler Magazine, Daisy has worked for Vanity Fair, the Evening Standard Magazine and The New York Observer. She was the Editor in Chief of Avenue Magazine for over four years and her work has appeared in, The New York Times, Vogue, Financial Times, The Strategist and The Daily Telegraph among others. Daisy has an MBA from NYU Stern. In 2022, She launched the Digital Party, a weekly newsletter which chronicles the people, places and cultural undercurrents of the 2020’s.

Allison Klein has been a journalist at The Washington Post since 2004, with a hiatus from 2013 to 2017. She edits the Inspired Life blog, a collection of surprising and unusual stories about humanity. She spent many years as a reporter covering crime, policing and police policy. Previously, she worked at the Baltimore Sun and the Miami Herald.

Charanna Alexander (Sha-Anna) is a New York-based wedding, love and lifestyle journalist with a passion for thought-provoking journalism about relationships.

She is the senior staff editor for the Weddings section of The New York Times.

For decades, criminal justice reporting has centered police and the system itself in its reporting on crime, prisons and courts. As society has re-examined the power dynamics inherent in North America, a recent spate of journalism has re-examined the traditional narratives inherited from a largely white-dominated newsroom. The form has extended to include those impacted by the system and even simpler stories often examine the power dynamics behind the justice system. In this power-packed session, three veteran, award-winning writers will share insights designed to help writers more easily center all the people impacted by criminal justice, including those impacted by the system, as well as share tips on building a freelance repertoire in the area.

Lisa Armstrong is an award-winning journalist with credits in The New York Times, The Intercept, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, The New Yorker, and other outlets. She is currently reporting mainly on incarceration and has written about the spread of COVID19 in correctional facilities and people who were sentenced to life without parole as minors. She produced a documentary for CBS News about how subpar mental health care provided by for-profit companies led to in an increase in suicides in state prisons, and directed a documentary about a young man who was incarcerated in an adult prison when he was 16. The film, “Little Boy Lost,” was featured in the Social Impact track at SXSW. Armstrong was a 2020-2021 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow and is a professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Mark Obbie is a freelance journalist who focuses on deeply reported narratives about criminal justice policy, victims of violence, policing, and punishment. After starting his career as a daily newspaper reporter, Obbie spent decades as an editor and then journalism professor. A Soros Justice Media Fellowship kickstarted his freelancing career in which he has produced dozens of magazine features challenging myths and mistakes surrounding our reactions to gun violence. His writing on criminal justice has appeared in Longreads, The Atlantic, Slate, The Trace, Politico, and the New York Times, among others.

Sylvia A. Harvey, also known as SAH, is an award-winning journalist, speaker, and author of The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and the American Family. Her work on race, class, policy, and incarceration has appeared in The Nation, Elle, Politico, Vox, VQR, The Marshall Project, The Root, and more. NPR, WBAI, Embodied WUNC, Cheddar News, and others, have featured her commentary on the criminal legal system. SAH is a dynamic speaker, known to light up any conference, university, or corporate stage with her fierce storytelling. Her work is being used in university coursework and has been cited by federal lawmakers calling for criminal justice reform. The Oakland native turned New Yorker, holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Connect with her on social media @Ms_SAH.

Christopher Johnston has published more than 3,500 articles in numerous regional and national publications including American Theatre, Christian Science Monitor, History Magazine, Leaps, and Scientific American. His book, Shattering Silences: Strategies to Prevent Sexual Assault, Heal Survivors, and Bring Assailants to Justice, was published by Skyhorse Publishers in May 2018. Currently, he is completing one of the inaugural Complicating the Narratives Fellowships for the Solutions Journalism Network. He is a member of ASJA’s Board of Directors and serves on the DEAI Task Force and Virtual Education Committee. He teaches playwriting and creative nonfiction courses at Cleveland State University and a variety of workshops for the William M. Skirball Writers Center and Literary Cleveland.

Publications, including the Washington Post and the New York Times are increasingly prioritizing reported essays over personal narrative essays. In this session, essayist and writing instructor Amy Paturel and Marisa LaScala, an editor at Good Housekeeping, will break down an effective reported essay. Participants will have an opportunity to formulate their own reported essays ideas and learn how to pitch reported essays.

Marisa LaScala is the Senior Parenting and Relationships Editor for Good Housekeeping. She’s covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, GH since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.

Amy Paturel is a personal essay writing teacher, professor, and award-winning journalist. Her work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Good Housekeeping, and more. She lives with her husband and three sons in Southern California where she can be found hurtling over LEGO towers and mixing sourdough loaves. You can learn more about Amy at amypaturel.com. Follow her on twitter @amypaturel.

Incorporating data into your stories and pitches is one of the quickest ways to land more assignments and bring depth to your writing. Learn how to uncover the data points that best illustrate your story in this nuts-and-bolts session on translating data, numbers and statistics into reader- and editor-friendly language.

Karla Starr is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and educator specializing in behavior, data, and communication. Her first book, Can You Learn to Be Lucky? Why Some People Seem to Win More Often Than Others, was named a Fast Company best book of the year. She coauthored her second book, Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers, with Chip Heath (Switch, Made to Stick). She lives in Portland, Oregon and online at kstarr.com.

ASJA Vice President Lisa Rabasca Roepe is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who writes about gender equity, diversity and inclusion, the culture of work, and personal finance. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, Wired, Insider, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, Marketplace, Ms. Magazine, The Muse and HR Magazine.

Covering people who’ve faced or witnessed fearful circumstances beyond their control requires empathy, ethics, and self-care, along with insights into how trauma impacts both the brains and bodies of you and your sources. This session will offer up guidance based on real experience of both primary and secondary trauma, and offer attendees tangible tools, guidelines, and resources collected from experts in the field.

Naseem Miller (she/her/hers) is the senior editor for health at The Journalist’s Resource, a project of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She joined JR in 2021 after working as a health reporter in local newspapers and national medical trade publications for two decades. Immediately before joining JR, she was a senior health reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, where she was part of the team that was named a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. Miller co-started and administers the Journalists Covering Trauma Facebook group and speaks to journalists about trauma, self-care and trauma-informed reporting.

Jessica DuLong (she/her/hers) is a Brooklyn-based author, journalist, editor, and book collaborator/coach. Her longstanding interest in trauma further intensified while reporting her book, Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift, the definitive history of the world’s largest waterborne evacuation. Interviews for Saved, which was featured in Spike Lee’s docuseries, NYC Epicenters, called upon DuLong to lead survivors through memories of their most harrowing moments, while reconciling her own PTSD from serving at the World Trade Center as a USCG-licensed marine engineer aboard retired 1931 NYC fireboat John J. Harvey. Today, DuLong writes regularly about books for CNN.com and collaborates with writers and authors on works about trauma, psychology, and neuroscience; memoir, history, and health; race, equity, and cross-cultural connection; as well as gender, parenting, and justice.

Most of your favorite media companies have a shopping, or commerce, side. These sites often rely on experienced writers to digest and share product insights and real-world testing with consumers. In this session, commerce editors that hire and work with freelancers will explain how to break into writing product review articles.

You’ll also learn:

*Why commerce writing can help build your personal brand

*Why commerce writing is a form of service journalism

*The unique way commerce editors assign stories  

Jessica Wozinsky Fleming is the Senior Commerce Editor for Health.com and Verywell Health. She has more than fifteen years of experience as a writer and editor and has worked for iconic brands such as Parade Magazine, WW (formerly Weight Watchers), Rachael Ray, and David Letterman. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, and the New York Times. Jessica is an Ironman athlete, three-time marathoner, and once ran up all 1,860 steps to the top of the Empire State Building. She continues to have a passion for health and fitness, but, these days, her main form of exercise is keeping up with her four young sons.

Rebecca Isaacs is a seasoned tech journalist based in New York City. With over four years of experience in the tech field, she has become an authority on consumer technology, specializing in the ever-expanding realm of smart home devices.

Rebecca’s expertise and passion for all things tech has earned her recognition and publication in ZDNET, PCMag, Decider, Lifewire, NBC, and more. Her bylines have become synonymous with insightful and well-researched articles that provide valuable insights to readers seeking the latest developments in the tech world.

When not busy unraveling the digital realm for consumers, Rebecca can be found traveling, reading the latest nonfiction releases, or gaming on her MSI Stealth rig.

Courtney Schley, a senior editor covering sleep and appliances, has been at Wirecutter since 2014. She has held several roles at Wirecutter, including research editor, as well as supervising editor of baby and kid coverage.

You can struggle for years trying to suss out what it will take to break into the markets that keep eluding you or you can get actionable feedback and suggestions from the gatekeepers who will ultimately determine your success in major media outlets that always seemed beyond your reach.

Sherry Amatenstein, LCSW is a longtime ASJA member, NYC-based psychotherapist, author, anthologist and journalist. Sherry has written for many publications including AARP Ethel, Vox, The Cut, Shondaland, Tablet, Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens. See more at howdoesthatmakeyoufeelbook.com.

Zach Helfand is an associate editor at The New Yorker, where he edits The Talk of the Town. As a writer, he has contributed dozens of pieces to the magazine. Previously, he was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times.

Amanda Katz is a senior editor for the Washington Post opinion section. She was previously an editor of investigations at CNN, an editor of the Ideas section and the features section (as well as a Spotlight investigation) for the Boston Globe, and an editor of fiction and nonfiction books at Bloomsbury Publishing in New York. She has written about books, language, and culture for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Slate, and other publications. She holds an MFA in poetry and lives in Washington, DC.

Amy Brightfield is the health and features director at Better Homes & Gardens, a position she’s held since 2013.  Previously, she worked as the health director at Woman’s Day, senior health editor at Fitness, and health and fitness editor at Seventeen.  She produces the Thrive section, covering health & wellness, nutrition, lifestyle, money and travel.

The journalism and writing landscape is ever-changing. You need to constantly reinvent yourself to find work and stay ahead. This candid conversation is aimed at helping journalists identify new trends in social media and beyond. How are journalists using social media from sourcing to pitching and promotion as stories move to publication? Why is it still important to network with other writers, and how has that changed in the virtual world? Explore what editors are looking for as the industry continues to move into the digital space, how to reach new editors, and whether pitching is the only way to get new work. How have Twitter and Insta changed how we get assignments, and how might TikTok alter this landscape?

Randi Mazzella is a freelance writer and journalist. She writes about a wide range of topics including parenting, mental health and wellness, midlife issues and pop culture. Her work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, AARP’s The Girlfriend. Psycom, Charlotte Parent and Next Avenue. She is a mother of three grown children and lives in New Jersey with her husband. Read more of her work on randimazzella.com.

Donna Bulseco, MA, MS, has been an editor and journalist for the past 25 years at the Wall Street Journal, Women’s Wear Daily, W, Self, and InStyle. She is currently filling in as the Travel Editor at the Wall Street Journal “Off Duty” section. Bulseco is a graduate of the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University and teaches in the summer publishing institute at the Columbia. She is editor-in-chief of Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, a literary journal recognized as a leader in the medical humanities world.

Anna Goldfarb is a friendship journalist. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox, Washington Post, The Cut and more. Her second book, Modern Friendship, will be out in June 2024.  @AnnaGoldfarb

Currently the managing editor of Real Simple magazine, Tara Cox has also held positions at Rachael Ray In Season, Men’s Journal, Us Weekly, and Popular Mechanics,and was the founding editor of RVLiving magazine. She’s written for The Strategist, the New York Post, Prevention, and Newsday. Her book, Airstream: The Silver RV, was rated Highbrow/Brilliant on New York magazine’s “Approval Matrix;” she also wrote the foreword to The Ultimate Spam Cookbook and most recently one of her recipes is featured in The Delmonico Way, a new cookbook celebrating the famed NYC fine dining establishment.

Writing about family is changing to be more inclusive. Yes, it still includes writing about kids but it also includes writing about all types of family structures. Learn how to pitch, what publications want, how to find sources, how to brainstorm ideas and much more.

Holly Rizzuto Palker is an award-winning writer, an editor at Literary Mama and Your Teen Magazine, a board member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and a mom to three children and a dog. As a freelancer, her passion lies in parenting and family relationships, although she also writes about a range of other topics. Her articles and essays appear in Parents, The New York Daily News, The Independent, Newsday, Huffington Post, Your Teen Magazine, Literary Mama, Kveller, Zibby Mag, Psycom, and more. She is working on a book about her interfaith family.

Sa’iyda Shabazz is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles with her son, partner and too many pets. She writes about the intersections of parenting, race, sexuality, gender and socioeconomic status as well as lifestyle and pop culture. A former writer and editor at Scary Mommy, she is currently a writer for Autostraddle, where she writes a column about parenting as a queer mom. Her work has also been published by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Tess Clarkson, a former professional Irish dancer (Broadway’s “Riverdance” and Michael Flatley’s productions) and financial regulation lawyer based in New York now is a writer living in Missouri. She’s a stepmom to three young adults and has three dogs. She’s certified as a yoga teacher, astrologer, and end-of-life doula. She covers death, grief, and life in the middle: parenting parents, navigating sibling stress, and blending families. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Independent, Insider, Next Avenue, AARP’s The Girlfriend and The Ethel, and more. Find her at www.tessclarkson.com.

Jaclyn Greenberg writes about her experiences parenting as well as challenges related to accessibility and inclusion. She’s written for The New York Times, CNN, Wired, Business Insider, Huffpost, Parents, Good Housekeeping, Fodor’s and other publications. She’s working on a memoir about sticking together as a family of five. You can connect with her on Twitter at jl_greenberg or Instagram at JaclynlGreenberg.

Conz Preti is an award-winning editor, originally from Argentina and mom of three under 5. She’s worked in online media for over 15 years, and her byline can be found on many of the popular websites millennials read regularly. She has a master’s from Columbia Journalism in digital journalism. She’s the author of “Too Pregnant To Move” and wrote a chapter for the parenting book “100 Diverse Voices on Parenthood.” Currently she is the Senior Editor for freelancers at Insider Parenting, focusing on parenting, health, college life, and sex and relationships.

Julie Pfitzinger is the Managing Editor and Senior Editor for Features at Next Avenue, a digital publication of PBS for readers 50 and older. She has worked as a writer and editor for more than 20 years; her writing has appeared in publications including the Star Tribune, Minnesota Parent and Family Times, where she was the “Tweens and Teens” columnist. Prior to coming to Next Avenue in 2017, she was a managing editor for the community lifestyle magazine group at Tiger Oak Media in Minneapolis, where she also served as writer and editor for Saint Paul Magazine and other Tiger Oak publications. She is the parent of two grown children. Julie can be reached via email at jpfitzinger@nextavenue.org.

As journalists, we are rightfully trained to focus on truth. But the best stories are not just about the facts. The writing is also beautiful and powerful. How do you do this? Start with the sentence. In this writing intensive, an expert panel of award-winning writers will guide attendees through creating lyrical, vivid sentences that bring clarity and power to your work. Be prepared for exercises. Feel free to bring sentences you’d like to improve.

Victoria Clayton is a journalist, fiction writer, and adjunct professor. Her work has appeared in Forbes, Open Mind, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, MSNBC/NBC.com, The Midwest Review, Barrelhouse, Literary Mama and elsewhere. Victoria’s articles have been featured on “The View” and syndicated radio shows. Two of her LA Times features became 20/20 television segments. Her 2015 thesis work at the Missouri School of Journalism inspired a highly shared story about academic writing for The Atlantic. Victoria likes to write about writing and authors, as well as science, family and culture. Find her on Twitter @vicclay.

Cynthia Bond is a New York Times bestselling author. Her novel Ruby was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next Pick, and was an Oprah Book Club selection. Cynthia founded the Blackbird Writing Collective in 2011. She’s a graduate of Medill School of Journalism-Northwestern University. Read more at cynthiabond.com.

Nina Schuyler’s new novel, Afterword, was published in May 2023 by Clash Books. Her short story collection, In this Ravishing World, won the W.S. Porter Prize for Short Story Collections and The Prism Prize for Climate Literature and will be published by Regal House Publishing in 2024. Her nonfiction book, How to Write Stunning Sentences, is a bestseller. She has a new nonfiction book, Stunning Sentences: Creative Writing Journal. She teaches creative writing for Stanford Continuing Studies and the University of San Francisco. She lives in California. Read more at ninaschuyler.com and ninaschuyler.substack.com.

Francesca T. Royster is a professor of the English at DePaul University in Chicago. Her books include Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance (2023), Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions (2022), Sounding Like a No-No: Queer Sounds and Eccentric Acts in the Post-Soul Era  (2013), and Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon (2003).

Journalists invariably wield privilege and power, as we shape a narrative and select scenes, quotes, themes, arguments, and information to include. This panel, which ASJA is presenting in collaboration with the Institute for Independent Journalists, will tackle the ways we can reframe, report, write, and structure our stories in light of our privilege and the power hierarchies among the people we interview. Questions include: How do we re-examine these power dynamics within our own reporting and journalistic practices? How can we think more critically about the people we report on in our stories—from exploitation, to breaking news, to trauma narratives and true crime?

Katherine Reynolds Lewis is the founder of the Institute for Independent Journalists, whose mission is the financial and emotional sustainability of freelancers of color. She’s an award-winning science journalist covering children, behavioral and mental health, education, race, gender, disability, and related topics for the Atlantic, Fortune, New York Times, Undark, and Washington Post. Her book, The Good News About Bad Behavior, grew out of Mother Jones’ most-read story. Fellowships include O’Brien Public Service Journalism, Northwestern Medill-Garage Media Entrepreneur, and MIT Knight Science Journalism. A Harvard physics graduate, Katherine is a former national correspondent for Newhouse and Bloomberg News.

Erika Hayasaki is a writer based in Southern California whose feature stories appear in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic, Marie Claire, MIT Technology Review, Slate, New Republic, Guardian, Newsweek, Time, Glamour, Foreign Policy, and others. A former Knight-Wallace and Alicia Patterson fellow, Erika is interested in the intersections of identity, race, psychology, inequality, science, technology, history, and the human condition. A former national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, she teaches at the University of California, Irvine as a professor in the Literary Journalism Program. Erika is the author of THE DEATH CLASS (Simon & Schuster 2014), and SOMEWHERE SISTERS (Algonquin, October 2022).

Sandhya Dirks is a national correspondent at NPR, covering race and identity. She was the host of the podcast American Suburb, and a producer and reporter on the podcast On Our Watch. She believes all stories are stories about power.

Gabrielle Lawrence (they/them) is a freelance writer and editor from Southern California. Their personal writing interests span food, art, and environment. Professionally, their background is grounded in multimedia storytelling and managing the execution of digital content. They are invested in queer and trans storytelling and are currently the managing editor for TransLash News and Narrative. Gabrielle is an aspiring music connoisseur, audio storyteller, and nature lover. Learn more about their work and services at gabrielle-l.com.

In the past decade, North American media coverage of marginalized communities has expanded. But sometimes that coverage can be as harmful as leaving out voices altogether, as demonstrated by a recent letter to the New York Times taking the paper to task for editorial bias in its coverage of transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people. This panel examines how to develop a more inclusionary reporting practice, one that looks beyond merely diversifying sources to represent the continent’s population and people’s varying points of view more accurately. Panelists will examine common journalistic pitfalls, including allowing one person to speak for an entire group and framing pitches and stories from the predominant white, cisgender point of view. They’ll also provide strategies for how to move from diversity to inclusionary practices.

Moderator: Laura Laing, freelance writer and ASJA immediate past-president
With more than 20 years as a freelance journalist, Laura’s essays and reporting on queer issues have appeared in Parents, The Advocate, Baltimore’s City Paper, The Rumpus, and Consequence literary magazine. She is currently writing a queer coming-of-age memoir that blends narrative with explorations in abstract mathematics. She is past-president of ASJA.

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Samantha Riedel is a freelance journalist who currently works as a contributing writer for Them.us. Her writing on transgender culture and politics has previously been published in Bitch Magazine, the Huffington Post, Vice, and The Establishment; her essay “On Transfeminine Anger” was also featured in the 2019 anthology Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger (Seal Press). Samantha makes her home in western Massachusetts. 

David Steele has been a professional sports journalist for more than 35 years, writing for outlets that include The Sporting News, Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Chronicle and Newsday. His third book, “It Was Always a Choice: Picking Up the Baton of Athlete Activism,” was named one of the 10 Best Books in Arts & Humanities of 2022 by Library Journal. He also is the co-author of “Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith.” He serves on the advisory board for the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland, and on the executive board for the Baltimore Association of Black Journalists.