Deadline extension: The workshop still has several spots, so we are extending the application deadline until Thursday, May 17, at midnight. For these later applicants, we will send you confirmation of a spot by Friday, May 18, at midnight if you are selected. All applicants to the workshop so far have been accepted, and you will hear from us soon on scheduling one-on-one sessions. Please plan to attend the group lunch workshop on Monday, May 21, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Joseph Henry House.
Seniors, juniors, graduate students, and faculty are invited to apply for this workshop, offered after Dean’s Date, in which they will explore how to turn some part of their thesis, JP, or other piece of writing into publishable work suitable for a popular audience. The workshop is aimed at those who want to adapt an excerpt into an article, op-ed, or essay for a general-interest publication, or revise an excerpt for use in a job application or as a writing sample. Participants can also discuss how to add a multimedia component to their project.
May 21 — Lunchtime Workshop
May 21–23 — Individual Consultations
The workshop will be led by Edward Wong and Richard Just.
Edward Wong is a senior international correspondent for The New York Times and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University who has reported on Iraq and China for 14 years. He was most recently Beijing bureau chief for the Times and taught at Princeton University in 2017 as a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism. His seminar course was “International News: Reporting from Baghdad to Beijing.”
Richard Just is editor of The Washington Post Magazine. He was previously editor of National Journal and The New Republic. In 2014, he was a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. His seminar course was “The McGraw Seminar in Writing: The Art of Writing for Intellectual Magazines.”
Before the individual consultation, Edward or Richard will read your thesis, JP, or other piece of writing. They will then work with you to identify elements of the project that might be publishable and advise you on how to create a suitable excerpt.
The workshop is by application only. To apply, please email by midnight on Thursday, May 17, the following material to both Edward (edwongnyt@gmail.com) and Richard (richardajust@gmail.com):
— Your thesis, JP, or other piece of writing
— A document with a one-paragraph summary of the project, a statement of personal or professional goals, and a few paragraphs of biographical information
The material should be emailed as Word files. Applicants will be notified by midnight on Friday, May 18, whether they have been accepted into the workshop.
The workshop and consultations will be held in Joseph Henry House’s seminar rooms.
Please consider applying if your thesis, JP, or other piece of writing:
—Makes an argument, or has some insight, that would have contemporary relevance to the worlds of politics or culture.
—Tells a non-fiction narrative, contemporary or historical, that would potentially be of interest to a general audience.
—Contains any other element you can imagine adapting for a general-interest publication.
—Can be adapted to a shorter form to be presented as part of a non-academic job application or as a writing sample.
Edward Wong
Edward Wong is a senior international correspondent for The New York Times and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He was most recently Beijing bureau chief for the Times and taught in 2017 at Princeton University as a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism. Before beginning his China assignment in 2008, he worked as a correspondent in the Baghdad bureau, where he covered the Iraq War from 2003 to 2007. He has been at the Times for more than 18 years and, before going overseas, reported for four years on the business, metro, and sports desks in New York. Edward has been interviewed on PBS, NPR, BBC, and CBC.
He received the Livingston Award for his coverage of Iraq and was part of a team from the Baghdad bureau that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He received a prize for environmental reporting from The Society of Publishers in Asia for stories on China’s pollution crisis and shared a prize in feature writing from the same organization for a series on China’s global influence. He was on the Times team that received an award for best documentary project from Pictures of the Year International for a 2016 series on global climate refugees. The same project was nominated for an Emmy Award. He has a prize from the Associated Press Sports Editors.
Edward graduated with honors from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. He has dual master’s degrees in international studies and journalism from the University of California at Berkeley.
Richard Just
Richard Just is editor of The Washington Post Magazine. He is the former editor of National Journal and The New Republic, both of which he led to National Magazine Award nominations in his first year as editor. He has also worked at Newsweek and The American Prospect.
He is founder and executive director of the Princeton University Summer Journalism Program, which annually brings 35–40 high-school seniors from low-income backgrounds to Princeton’s campus for an all-expenses-paid crash course on journalism and college admissions. In 2014, he taught at Princeton as a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism.
Richard graduated from Princeton in 2001. He was a Woodrow Wilson School major and editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian.
