Reporting in Your Own Back Yard (Session)

How can you put on a new lens to find stories in your backyard that resonate with a national audience? Often the best reporting comes from locals who reside in the area and know the rhythms, quirks and history. This can lead to a deeper, more immersive story for readers but not necessarily a difficult prospect for the writer as the many years of background and community connections are already there. Is there a micro-culture as it relates to food, art, design, true crime, nature or history you’ve grown up with and are itching to tell stories about? Learn from panelists who report and write often about their backyards and the fun stories they’ve found, and how they pitched and sold to editors.

This is a recording of a session originally presented at ASJA’s 2022 Fall Conference.

Jack El-Hai, a past president of ASJA, is the author of many books. The most recent is the true-crime title The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search (University of Minnesota Press), which he adapted into the podcast Long Lost. He has contributed articles and essays to The Atlantic, Smithsonian, GQ, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, The Washington Post Magazine, and other publications. He lives in Minneapolis.

Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kristine Hansen covers travel, food/drink and art/design in the Midwest for outlets that include Fodors.com, TravelandLeisure.com and ArchitecturalDigest.com. She’s also the author of two books about Wisconsin (Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook: Creamy, Cheesy, Sweet and Savory Recipes from the State’s Best Creameries; and Wisconsin Farms and Farmers Markets: Tours, Trails and Attractions) with a third publishing in 2023 (Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin: How America’s Most Famous Architect Found Inspiration in His Home State).

For more than 20 years, Karon Warren has covered stories in her own backyard for both local and national publications on a wide range of topics, including lifestyle, travel, business and more. Most recently, she leverage her knowledge of her own backyard to write her first book, “100 Things to Do in the North Georgia Mountains Before You Die.” She has been a member and volunteer with ASJA since 2010.