Old Gold and Black on Scott Anderson Visit and NewsArts Initiative

Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer and grantee Scott Anderson met at Wake Forest University, a Pulitzer Center campus consortium partner, on October 26 as part of a new Pulitzer Center initiative. NewsArts explores the intersection of art and news, aiming to teach journalists how to tell stories from unconventional platforms.
Anderson and Sawyer discussed "Fractured Lands," Anderson's 42,000-word story for The New York Times Magazine which details the complicated socio-political factors of today's Arab world and the history of how that world came to be.
"Fractured Lands" isn't just a living example of the work the Pulitzer Center funds, but is a strong model for the NewsArts mission of engaging the public in the news through personal narrative.
"You have to tell a personal story," Anderson said. "You have to have the reader connect on an individual level or else it just becomes numbers. You need to do whatever you can to put a face to those names."
Read the full feature in Wake Forest University's The Old Gold and Black.