Pulitzer Winner Lane DeGregory and NY Times Editor Mike Wilson on Making Writing Come Alive

Lane DeGregory wants you to forget everything you ever learned about the inverted pyramid.

The staple of breaking news writing is the antithesis of the narrative storytelling that the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author specializes in.

DeGregory, a Tampa Bay Times reporter and author with eight nonfiction book credits to her name, will talk about the elements that make stories come alive in a keynote session conversation at ASJA: Always in Fashion, NYC2025, Feb. 24-26.

She’ll be joined by her “favorite” editor Mike Wilson, deputy editor of The New York Times feature “The Great Read,” which highlights narrative stories. Moderating their conversation is journalist, editor, and DeGregory’s long-time friend Laura Coffey, president of the Society for Features Journalism.

Registration for the ASJA 2025 conference ends Friday, Feb. 14. See the full conference program here and register here.

Inspired By Watergate

DeGregory decided to be a journalist in kindergarten, listening to her dad read stories about Watergate from the Washington Post. “Woodward and Bernstein were his heroes, so I wanted to be like them,” she said in an email.

She started out covering news at a small newspaper in Charlottesville, Virginia, then in a bureau of the Virginian-Pilot on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, filing two or three stories a day.

In 1998, the Pilot began a narrative writing team. “I didn’t know what that was,” she said. “But it offered the opportunity to write only two or three stories a week, and to actually turn articles into stories.”

DeGregory joined the Tampa Bay Times 25 years ago. She won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for The Girl in the Window, the story of “a neglected little girl, found in a roach-infested room, unable to talk or feed herself, who was adopted by a new family committed to her nurturing.

“I am still so honored to be able to tell stories about ordinary people living extraordinary lives,” DeGregory said.

Learn How to Turn Articles Into Stories

In their presentation, DeGregory and Wilson plan to discuss the writing tips and techniques writers can use to transform plain vanilla articles into compelling stories. The talk will:

• Cover how to find, report, think about, pitch, and edit narrative stories
• Share how to craft stories that keep readers hooked “all the way to the very-very end!”
• Walk attendees through an example of a story DeGregory and Wilson worked on together

Wilson will also talk about what he looks for in pitches for the Times’ “The Great Read.”

DeGregory met Wilson at the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) and they worked together for more than 13 years. “We used to joke our relationship lasted longer than a lot of marriages!” she said. “I would definitely not be the writer I am without his patience, wisdom and guidance.”

To get a taste of what DeGregory and Wilson’s collaboration, read:

• His first Valentine, published in the Tampa Bay Times Feb. 13, 2014
• Mr. Newton: Still working at 99, published in the Tampa Bay Times Dec. 15, 2015
• “The Girl in the Window” and Other True Tales, an anthology of 24 of DeGregory’s stories annotated with details of her reporting and writing process.

From the Tampa Bay Times, Wilson went on to work as the founding managing editor of Nate Silver’s data journalism website, FiveThirtyEight, and then editor of The Dallas Morning News, before joining the New York Times. He’s the author of two books: “Right on the Edge of Crazy” about American ski racers in the 1992 Olympics, and “The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison,” on Oracle’s billionaire founder.

Coffey  spent 14 years working as a senior writer, editor and producer for NBC’s TODAY show and its website, TODAY.com. She’s been a reporter and editor at the Tampa Bay Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and San Diego Union-Tribune, and wrote the bestselling nonfiction book, “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts.”

Register for the ASJA 2025 Conference Today!

Conference registration is $559 for ASJA members and $659 for nonmembers through 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 14, and $659 for members and $759 for nonmembers from Feb. 15 until the conference starts.

Find the full ASJA 2025 conference schedule and register here.

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