"Man, to write like this at 18." The not-so-bad-for-35 Jason Fagone, author of Ingenious and Horsemen of the Esophagus, and contributing editor for Wired, on Stephanie Ng's "Opportunity Cost."

Literary journalism has roots in sports writing. Not its wonkery but its commitment to evocation, its attempt to recreate for readers what it felt like to see the game, or even to be in it.

Now, writes Chris Suellentrop in the NYT, a different kind of sports writing is approaching the same challenge from a different direction:

"What sports games have accomplished since the blips in Pong’s electronic rendition of table tennis is remarkable. They are now the closest thing in the medium of video games to nonfiction storytelling.... The largest pleasure they bring is the opportunity to blur the line between nonfiction and fiction..."

Read more.

Since I began teaching at Dartmouth, I've been wondering why more Dartmouth students don't make new publications. There's no more interesting way to begin a writing life. Or, at least, it beats fetching coffee for old hacks anxious about their place in the withering establishment media, or digging through a slush pile at a literary journal that never wanted to be read in the first place.

So I was delighted when I came across American Circus, a new online magazine of reported essays and narrative criticism, created by two 2011 Dartmouth grads, Jamie Berk and Mostafa Heddaya. And even more thrilled to discover that it's good. Not "good-for-the-stage-they're-at"; just good. And sharp-toothed. Like so many young contenders, they began by taking shots at establishment hipsters. Some, like Berk's attack on their predecessor in the genre, n+1, missed the target. Others, such as Heddaya's account of the let-them-eat-cake crowd's response to Hurricane Sandy, are knockouts. Heddaya's "Down and Out in Miami Beach," a gonzo take on Art Basel simmering with clever anger, is also worth reading. 

But American Circus really made a name for itself with Berk's reported essay on doping at the Kentucky Derby, "Whispers in the Shade of Roses." (Titling isn't their strong suit.) Now Berk returns to the races with "Tracks That Burn." 

--Jeff Sharlet

"Above All, Make No Mention of Mysticism" -- Madison Pauly's gently skeptical account of submitting herself for experiments in energy healing -- made the cut today with experts in skepticism behind the Center for Inquiry's "Morning Heresy" blog.

"When I say, 'interviewing,' I am talking from the perspective of a narrative or creative nonfiction writer. Interviewing for news is somewhat different; reporters usually know, more or less, the information they need to unearth. The writer of narrative, by contrast, is often seeking the unknown — the story behind the facts. You won’t always know the story until you hear it; your job as an interviewer, often, is to keep your subject talking."

--Lee Gutkind, "How to Listen