Writing on the Boston Marathon bombing - by Sean Flynn & Eric Moskowitz

I've previously done three different posts linking to great writing about the Boston Marathon bombing and recently there's been two additional stories that I found excellent.

The July issue of GQ Magazine featured "The Finish Line" by Sean Flynn and for the Boston Globe two weeks ago was "Amid death and anguish of bombing, a gift of life" by Eric Moskowitz.

Flynn recounts the day of the bombing through the stories of AP photographer Charles Krupa, bombing victim (and man who provided a description of Tamerlan Tsarnaev) Jeff Bauman, Boston Police Superintendent of Field Services William Evans and experienced medical volunteers Michael Powers and Stephen Segatore. The piece jumps between the various people's stories in a rough chronological order and is a captivating telling of the events.

The Moskowitz feature is on couple Caroline Reinsch and Christian Williams and how as each recuperated from injuries suffered in the bombing, Reinsch discovered the pregnancy they'd hoped for was now a reality. Just a really great story done well by Moskowitz.

Writing on the Boston Marathon Bombing

Not to simply list out great writing (well, actually, exactly to simply list out great writing) since the Boston Marathon bombing, there's been some amazing work done, both poignant and well reported with the pieces below being those that have stood out to me the most.

In the poignant essay category were pieces by Patton Oswalt and Joe Posnanski with Oswalt doing a Facebook post about good people and Posnanski's essay on his personal blog containing the same notion with his last sentence of "There are exponentially more good people than bad."

The piece of writing reported from the scene that I found most memorable was "In Grisly Image, a Father Sees His Son" by Tim Rohan for the New York Times. Recounted is the story of Jeff Bauman, a marathon spectator who lost both his legs at the scene. While the piece certainly contains a graphic image and some difficult to read text, it's also an inspiring depiction of helping others with Rohan's description of Carlos Arredondo (the subject of NYT piece from 2007 that Rohan links to) coming to Bauman's aide. Incredibly, there's a story that's come out just this evening on Bauman with "Boston Bombing Victim in Iconic Photo Helped Identify Attackers" by Asjylyn Loder & Esmé E. Deprez for Bloomberg.

The final pieces to note here contained details about the response of emergency personnel to the bombing and injuries with a New Yorker essay "Why Boston's Hospital's Were Ready" by noted author and Boston area surgeon Atul Gawande and "First responders to Boston bombings get relief, postgame beers from grateful Bruins" by Les Carpenter for Yahoo Sports.

Finally, it's of course not a piece of writing, but here was footage from the Boston Garden two nights after the bombing...