Tracy Kidder writes for the New Yorker and is a contributing editor for the Atlantic Monthly . He is the author of several books and won the 1982 Pulitzer prize for nonfiction and the National Book Award for The Soul of a New Machine . Wolfe and his contemporaries, including Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion, and John McPhee, popularized the style with long, in-depth articles replete with personal insight and strong authorial voice. A Conference on Narrative Journalism. Previous conferences drew many new and aspiring writers, but this year, say planners, they've tried to target a more experienced audience.
National awards abound among the speakers, as well.
Pulitzer prize winning writer Rick Bragg will kick off the event Saturday morning with a keynote address. Other accomplished journalists follow, such as Susan Orlean, author of the New York Times best-seller The Orchid Thief , and Tracy Kidder, who won a Pulitzer prize and a National Book Award in 1982 for his book The Soul of a New Machine . Filmmaker Ross McElwee, whose film Sherman's March won best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993, will lead a workshop on narrative documentary. The popularity of narrative writing has risen in recent years. According to Kramer, narrative journalism delivers that meaning while other genres fall short.