Blair Mlotek

Everybody’s Got a Story that’ll Break Your Heart

Everybody’s Got a Story that’ll Break Your Heart

First-person journalism can bring out the critics, but that hasn’t stopped online publications from using it as a powerful tool to connect with readers

Leigh Stein’s boyfriend Jason threw her against the refrigerator and didn’t believe she was hurt until she showed him the bruises. They had moved to New Mexico together so she could write her book while he worked—it was the most romantic plan she had ever heard. She recounted her relationship in a BuzzFeed story about […]

 Julia Belluz

“I”

“I”

With plans to write about his severely disabled son, Ian Brown—a master of personal journalism—is about to get a lot more personal and maybe, finally, perhaps, produce a book that matches his big ambitions

“Failure!” says Ian Brown. “Big failure.” The feature writer and broadcaster is talking about his failure — to write a book he still owes Random House, the chronicle of a car high-jacking and kidnapping. We’re well into our conversation that began about an hour earlier, just after 8 a.m., when he burst through the wooden […]