Writing on Matthew Powers & Alaska's Aniakchak National Monument

Two pieces of recent writing I found to be excellent were a feature on travel to a remote national park system area at the start of the Aleutian island chain in Alaska and a remembrance of frequent outdoor adventure writer Matthew Power.

The tribute for Power who died while working on a story in Africa last month was "No Way Is Matt Power Gone" by Brad Wieners for Businessweek and both lovely writing on him and provided details into the heat stroke that brought about his death. Such a shame that he passed away and also understandable to read how someone could unwittingly put themselves in great danger.

The Outside Magazine piece was also really well done and struck me as being on the type of adventure that Power would frequently embark on and then write about. Written by Christopher Solomon, "Surviving Aniakchak National Monument" covered his time travelling in Aniakchak National Monument, "the least visited site in the national park system," and was a cool story about a place that also happens to be brown bear country.

Writing by and on Matthew Power

Recently while on assignment in Africa, non-fiction writer Matthew Power died and his passing brought about some profound remembrances as well as mentions of his work.

Two pieces on his memory were "Relentless Generosity" by Abe Streep for Outside Magazine and "Remembering Journalist Matthew Power" by Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke for New York Observer.

Really well-done and thoughtful pieces both and while I've only read a few of Power's works, stories of his from a number of publications have recently been highlighted, including his archive of articles for Harper's Magazine (with "Mississippi Drift" being the Harper's piece I saw the most mentions of by readers of Power).

Writing on the HMS Bounty sinking & Tim Hetherington documentary - from Outside, The Awl & Nieman Storyboard

There were two pieces of writing from the April issue of Outside Magazine that were excellent on their own, and which led me to other interesting work.

The largest feature story from the issue was by Kathryn Miles with "Sunk: The Incredible Truth About a Ship That never Should Have Sailed" on the HMS Bounty. The boat went down during Hurricane Sandy and claimed two lives, that of Captain Robin Walbridge and crewmember Claudene Christian. Related to the feature by Miles on the Bounty were two additional pieces from sources other than Outside. For Nieman Storyboard, there was an interview with Miles about the writing process and from The Awl was a piece by Michael Shaer titled "Interviews With The Survivors" about his process of writing the eBook The Sinking of the Bounty, and seeking out for a feature story people touched by tragedy.

The other piece I found of note from this edition of Outside Magazine was by Matthew Power with "Sebastian Junger Shoots for the Truth" on the documentary Which Way is the Frontline from Here: The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington that premiers April 18th on HBO. Hetherington was the filmmaker and and Junger the writer behind the excellent war documentary Restrepo (which I wrote about here) and the HBO show a tribute to Hetherington, killed along with fellow American photographer Chris Hondros by a motor attack two years ago in Libya.

Feature writing by Mooney, Power & Chivers

There's a few pieces of writing to note here that may not share huge connection with one another other than they're all exceptionally well done.

For Field & Stream in Jan, C.J. Chivers wrote the fairly short piece "Pain" about a Grizzly Bear attack on hunter Chris Ott in the British Columbia wilderness. The story was one of eighteen outdoor pieces by different writers for Field & Steam and features absolutely riveting language and tension building from Chivers.

Another exceptionally well done piece of writing I've seen lately then led me to an additional great piece by the same author. Michael Mooney earlier this month wrote "The Legend of Chris Kyle" for D Magazine and I then went and read "When Lois Pearson Started Fighting Back", published May 2012 in D Magazine. I was familiar with Kyle from the Time Magazine story "Killer. Healer. Victim" (which I briefly wrote about) after Kyle's Feb 2 death and Mooney provided additional excellent writing on his life. The Lois Pearson story is very different than that on Kyle in that she not known publicly, but contains one of the things I love to come across in great writing... a story that blends together well pathos with a positive story (with the latter of these coming at the very end of Mooney's feature on Pearson).

Final piece to mention here was a tremendously interesting one by Matthew Power for the March issue of GQ Magazine. "Excuse Us While We Kiss the Sky" chronicles Power's time spent exploring with people who go places they're not allowed (whether those be on top of bridges and buildings or in tunnels under cities) for the experience of it. It was fascinating writing on this concept known at times as urban exploration or place hacking.

Writing on interesting places, writing on nice stories and writing on mental health

There's been some excellent writing I've come across lately that seems to link together with two pieces being about interesting places, two about people with stories that can be described as exceptionally nice and two about the important subject of mental health.

In terms of interesting places, the March 2013 issue of Outside Magazine had a fascinating feature story written by Rowan Jacobsen. "Chef Blaine Wetzel's Quest to Become the Ultimate Locavore" was on the just-now-turning-27 Wetzel and his Willows Inn restaurant on Lummi Island near Bellingham, WA. It was one of those pieces of writing that stood out in part because I wouldn't have expected it to.

Another interesting place story recently was also from Outside, with the Outside website having a piece noted as originally appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of OnEarth Magazine. About the Chicago River, Matthew Power wrote "Is it Possible to Save the Waterway That Made Chicago Great?" Very similar to the feature on Wetzel and the Willows Inn, I wouldn't have expected to find this story that compelling, but it really was... and included Power describing the river by writing "levels of E. coli bacteria in non-disinfected wastewater sent from Stickney into the canal have registered 700 times above the legal limit for swimmable water."


In terms of nice, two stories that have stuck with me recently were on adoption of an abandoned child and a kayak journey. Of particular profundity was "We Found Our Son in the Subway", a first-person account from playwright and screenwriter Peter Mercurio posted to a New York Times blog. It's just heartwarming reading of a story that as Mercurio writes "began 12 years earlier."

It may not have the gravitas of the account by Mercurio, but another feel-good story written well was from Tampa Bay Times writer Ben Montgomery. "Kayak trip from Minnesota to Key West cuts through Tampa Bay" was about Daniel Alvarez and his solo kayak trip from Minnesota to Key West. The journey was financed by a $10,000 Outside Magazine (again with Outside Mag!) prize and Montgomery recounts how the 31 year old left behind his corporate law gig (which came out of a Yale law degree) to do... exactly what he wants to be doing.


The mental health writing was first a Chris Jones column for ESPN and then short interview with him about what he wrote. "Status update: A tennis player quits because the cost of a public life feeds her depression" is on 22 year old Rebecca Marino and then the Q&A piece "ESPN The Magazine columnist Chris Jones relates with young tennis star’s bouts with depression." In the interview, Jones references writing on the subject of his own depression a Nov 2011 Esquire piece (that I wrote about along with a similarly important Mike Sager piece) and his statement that "mental illness is something we should talk about" just seems to ring so true.