WORKSHOP: New Directions in Science Writing

Saturday, April 25, 2009
10:00 am to 3:40 pm
Reception to follow

U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
North Gate Hall
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/misc/directions.html

On April 25, the Northern California Science Writers Association (NCSWA) presents a one-day workshop open to Bay Area journalists, aspiring journalists, and students. Come learn how some of the most successful writers approach their work and the tools of the trade they rely on.  Established journalists and editors will discuss topics ranging from reporting long narrative features to the art of the infographic to the transition from journalist to book author. We’ll also explore other work available to science writers, including writing for non-profits and working for other science-based institutions, from universities to corporations.

Registration is currently closed.
Cost: $32.00 for professionals, $22.00 for students
The registration fee includes morning coffee, a box lunch, and food and drinks at the reception.

Schedule

9:30am-10:00am:       Registration & Coffee / Light Fare

10:00am-10:45am:     Plenary
Michelle Nijhuis, an award-winning freelance science and environmental journalist, has written for National Geographic, the New York Times, Smithsonian, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. Based in western Colorado, she is a contributing editor to High Country News and a correspondent for the environmental magazine Orion. Her stories have been anthologized in The Best American Science Writing. Her writing and reporting focus on long-term narrative stories about conservation and global change, but she also covers subjects ranging from border security to Turkish wrestling.

11:00am-12:00am:     Concurrent Sessions 1

1A) Graphic journalism: The art of the “charticle”
From Wired to Mother Jones to Backpacker to Harper’s, “charticles” or graphic articles have become front-of-book mainstays. Our panelists will discuss what goes into finding, pitching, and landing these stories, and the art of working alongside designers to tell your story or visualize complex scientific subjects in graphic form.
Dave Gilson, senior editor, Mother Jones
Stacy Lawrence, senior writer, BioCentury
Adam Rogers, senior editor, Wired

1B) Books: Pursuing, proposing, and landing your first deal
Writing a book can be an incredibly fulfilling experience and can help a journalist build a reputation of expertise in his or her area of interest. Our panelists, including published authors and an established Bay Area literasry agent, will explore the challenges and strategies for building an effective book proposal, finding an appropriate agent, and landing your first contract. Panelists will also touch on more timely topics such as eBooks, electronic rights, and the advent of Amazon’s Kindle.
Suzanne Bohan, co-author, 50 Simple Ways to Live a Longer Life (Sourcebooks)
Thomas Hayden, co-author, Sex and War (Benbella Books) and On Call in Hell (NAL Hardcover)
Ted Weinstein, literary agent, Ted Weinstein Literary Management

12:00pm-1:00pm:      Lunch (box lunch provided)

1:10pm-2:10pm:        Concurrent Sessions 2

2A) Diversifying your career: Who else hires science writers
Diversifying your writing career can help you stave off burnout and provide the stability of multiple income streams during tough economic times. Our panelists will talk about the range of opportunities open for science writers, including writing for corporate clients, environmental NGOs and textbook publishers—not to mention developing and writing children’s books, and managing the news from the other side of the fence, in the press offices of universities, government labs, and other institutions that conduct research.
Jenny Carless, science and technology writer for non-profits, educational institutions and corporate clients
Susan Davis, health, medicine and environmental writer for magazines, non-profits, corporate clients
Don Gibbons, chief communications officer, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Mary Miller, science writer and web producer, Exploratorium

2B) Investigative journalism for science writers
Science writing is often seen as an explanatory form of journalism, but science also provides a fertile ground for investigation, from original analyses of documents to undercover reporting. Our panelists will talk about their experiences uncovering major scientific fraud, identifying biological research that could be misused by terrorists, investigating genetic testing and privacy, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of online encyclopedias.
Peter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief, New Scientist
Jim Giles, correspondent for New Scientist

2:20-3:40pm: Concurrent Sessions 3

3A) Harnessing the social media for journalists
Few journalists are active in the social online media—and yet they provide powerful tools for sharing and promoting our work and for tracking stories and finding sources. Our trainer will provide a show-and-tell tour of Facebook and a quick introduction to Twitter, punctuated with case studies on how journalists have used these tools well (and occasionally, not so well) to report stories which otherwise might have been difficult to uncover.
Rhyen Coombs, trainer, Knight Digital Media Center

3B) Narrative journalism: Reporting & interviewing
It’s one thing to find an interesting science story, but how do you go the extra mile to find a story that will also make for great narrative reading? Our speakers will talk about how they search out their narrative pearls, and the kind of interviewing, reporting, and digging it takes to flesh out the characters, scenes, and anecdotes that make for a real page turner.
Joshua Davis, contributing editor, Wired
Jennifer Kahn, contributing editor, Wired     
Michelle Nijhuis, contributing editor, High Country News

3:40pm-4:30pm:        Closing reception (snacks and beverages provided)

Questions: Contact douggfoxx@nasw.org

Transportation

U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism North Gate Hall
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/misc/directions.html

If you drive, parking is $12. There are two parking structures on Hearst Ave., one below Euclid Ave. near Scenic Ave. and one above Euclid Ave. at Gayley Rd. (Called Lower Hearst Parking Structure and Upper Hearst Parking Structure on the map below). This is the only all-day parking in the area.

We urge participants to take BART. From the downtown Berkeley station, head east – toward the hills. A ten-to-15-minute walk will get you to Northgate Hall.
http://berkeley.edu/map/maps/large_map.html
Bart Station is on Shattuck Ave., indicated in lower left on the map. Northgate Hall is on the north edge of the campus, along Hearst Ave. Hearst is a straight street, left to right, in upper part of map.

Presenter Biographies

Peter Aldhous, the San Francisco bureau chief for New Scientist, has also written and edited for Nature. He has reported stories from around the world, including Cameroon, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, and Vietnam. His articles have won awards from the Association of British Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists, the U.K. Guild of Health Writers, the Royal Statistical Society and the Wistar Institute.

Suzanne Bohan, co-author of 50 Simple Ways to Live a Longer Life (Sourcebooks), is the regional science reporter for the Bay Area News Group, a 635,000-chain newspaper chain that includes the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News. Suzanne has also contributed to National Public Radio's San Francisco affiliate KQED.

Jenny Carless (www.jennycarless.com) has written for environmental non-profits (The Ocean Conservancy), government organizations (the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary), high-tech companies (Cisco, HP, and Adobe Systems), and a variety of educational organizations (Monterey Institute of International Studies, Global Village International School, and the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center). She has also written two books (Renewable Energy: A Concise Guide to Green Alternatives; Taking Out the Trash: A No-Nonsense Guide to Recycling).

Rhyen Coombs is a multimedia student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where she’ll receive her masters degree in May. She regularly teaches workshops on journalism and social media for the Knight Digital Media Center in Berkeley and was a multimedia intern at the Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley. Prior to entering graduate school, Rhyen worked as an editor and online developer for World Pulse, a magazine in Portland, Oregon. Her work has also appeared in the Oakland Tribune, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Contra Costa Times, China Digital Times, and AlterNet.org. Rhyen is currently documenting the items left behind upon foreclosure, a photography project for which she received the 2009 Dorothea Lange Fellowship.

Joshua Davis, contributing editor and author of over 20 features at Wired, has also written for GQ, Outside, Men’s Health, Maxim, San Francisco Magazine, and Food & Wine. His feature stories have been optioned for film development by DreamWorks, Fox, and Paramount.

Susan Davis has written about science topics for The Washington Post, National Public Radio, Ladies Home Journal, and WebMD. She has also written for non-profit organizations (California Public Health Association, African American Health Disparity Project, AAAS), corporate clients (Intel, The Focal Point), and universities (UCSF, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, UC Berkeley). She is co-author of several parenting books. She specializes in health, medicine, and environmental topics.

Don Gibbons is the chief communications officer for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He previously served as associate dean for public affairs at Harvard Medical School for 12 years. During that time he developed messaging for the state to lobby NIH for stem cell research funding. He has also served as editor-in-chief for Medical World News.

Jim Giles, a correspondent for New Scientist, has also written on staff for Nature. He writes on a broad range of topics in science, technology, politics, and the environment. His Nature feature on “The Dustiest Place on Earth” – the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad – was a winner in the 2005 awards of the Association of British Science Writers.

Dave Gilson, senior editor at Mother Jones, previously worked on-staff for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Northern California bureau of the New York Times. His work has also appeared in Salon.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the East Bay Express.

Thomas Hayden, co-author of the 2007 best-seller On Call in Hell (NAL Hardcover), about battlefield medicine in Iraq, and co-author of the newly published Sex and War , teaches journalism and environmental sustainability at Stanford University. He was previously on-staff at Newsweek and US News & World Report.

Jennifer Kahn, has been a contributing editor at Wired magazine since 2003, and a feature writer for The New Yorker, National Geographic, Outside, Discover, Mother Jones, and the New York Times, among others. Her work has been chosen for the Best American Science Writing series four times in the past seven years, most recently in 2009. This semester she is teaching a seminar on narrative science writing at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Stacy Lawrence has researched, written, and designed infographics for multiple publications, including Wired, MIT's Technology Review, Red Herring, Acumen Journal of Life Sciences, Nature Biotechnology and more. She knows how to turn rows and rows of numbers into simple charts and graphs, and how to help artists understand complex scientific processes and render them in cartoon form. She is currently a senior writer at BioCentury.

Mary Miller is a science writer and web producer for the Exploratorium, a museum of science, art and human perception in San Francisco. During her 18 years there, she has also worked in exhibit development, magazine, book and web writing, and led web and video production teams to remote locations in Greenland and Antarctica (www.icestories.exploratorium.edu). Mary is also a freelance magazine writer and lectures on web media and storytelling in the science communication graduate program at U.C. Santa Cruz.

Michelle Nijhuis, an award-winning freelance science and environmental journalist, has written for National Geographic, the New York Times, Smithsonian, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. Based in western Colorado, she is a contributing editor to High Country News and a correspondent for the environmental magazine Orion. Her stories have been anthologized in The Best American Science Writing. Her writing and reporting focus on long-term narrative stories about conservation and global change, but she also covers subjects ranging from border security to Turkish wrestling.

Adam Rogers is a senior editor at Wired who focuses on science, politics, military, and law enforcement technology. In addition to features, he edits the graphic-rich Start section of the magazine.  Previously, he was a reporter at Newsweek.

Ted Weinstein is a literary agent who represents many authors of popular science books, including UC Berkeley geographer Trevor Paglen (Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World from Dutton Books / Penguin Group]), Stanford mathematician and NPR "Math Guy" Keith Devlin (The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern from Basic Books / Perseus), science journalist Susan Freinkel (American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree from UC Berkeley Press), and HP Labs experimental economist Kay-Yut Chen and science journalist Marina Krakovsky (Moneylab: Lab-Tested Wisdom From the New Science of Business).