Collections

Library

Literary Journalism

Collection

Writing from observation, about people, places, and things in the present. A type of creative nonfiction.

Creative Nonfiction

Collection

Literary writing about real people, places, and things.

Complete archive

Posts tagged Character profiles

Susan Orlean, "The American Man, Age Ten"

This classic essay takes the form of the journalistic profile piece—usually used to write about “important” and “unusual” people—and turns it on its head, using it instead to delve into the life of someone utterly ordinary: a “typical” ten-year-old American boy.

susan-orlean-american-manAustin WoernerMarch 12, 2020Susan Orlean, Creative Nonfiction, Literary journalism, Character profiles

Susan Orlean, "Shortcuts"

Journalist Susan Orlean paints a portrait of her neighborhood hair salon.

susan-orlean-shortcutsAustin WoernerOctober 31, 2019Susan Orlean, Creative Nonfiction, Literary journalism, Writing about places, Character profiles, WOC190

汪曾祺，《多年父子成兄弟》

wang-zenqi-duonian-fuziAustin WoernerOctober 19, 2019Annotated edition, Wang Zengqi 汪曾祺, Chinese, Character profiles, Memoir, Creative Nonfiction

朱自清，《背影》

zhu-ziqing-beiyingAustin WoernerOctober 19, 2019Annotated edition, Chinese, Memoir, Zhu Ziqing 朱自清, Creative Nonfiction, Character profiles

Joseph Mitchell, "Professor Sea Gull"

Joseph Mitchell’s famous 1942 profile of Joe Gould, the Greenwich Village eccentric who claimed to be writing a voluminous “Oral History of Our Time.”