Best writers to read for a young writer

One, admittedly low for that paper compared to the others in that market

+1

 

As a young writer, read far more outside the genre of either sports or journalism than inside.

 

I'm a young writer but I read...

- Real Clear Sports
- Grantland
- 538
- Anything by Wright Thompson
- SB Nation Long form
- Every article SI's Richard Deitsch includes in his weekly media column (usually about 7 sports pieces and 10 non-sports pieces)

 

Lee Jenkins at SI. He's a great example of how good writing flows from good reporting.

 

I highly suggest the longform, as well.
There you will learn all about concision, economy of language and tight writing.

 

Wayne Coffey, New York Daily News. Doesn't write nearly enough, in my opinion, but the guy really knows how to tell a story.

http://www.nydailynews.com/authors?author=Wayne%20Coffey

 

Eli Saslow (ESPN), Lars Anderson (SI) -- both can make any subject interesting. And they do it consistently.

Chris Ballard (SI) is also a really good model if you want to study how to elicit emotion from a reader.

 

Great question, and an important one. I have three:
1. Dave Kindred
2. John Cheever
3. Raymond Chandler

They all will help you get better.

 

I'm also a young writer, and I second earlier suggestions like Wright Thompson, Grantland and Richard Deitsch's Sunday night columns and Twitter account (he posts really good stuff on Twitter everyday).

Some of my other favorites are ESPN the Mag's Seth Wickersham, SI's Luke Winn and Lee Jenkins, LAT's Nathan Fenno (one of the few columnists I'll read), MMQB's Jenny Vrentas and WaPo's Kent Babb.

 

Bypass the fact-light, opinion-driven stuff. Look for tightly written, factual pieces. You may need to go back a few decades to find this work.

 

Good suggestions here. I would also suggest reading some of the "best of sportswriting books," Adrian Wojnarowski, Plaschke ("Her Blue Heaven" stands out to me), Rick Reilly's takeouts for SI back in the day (such as the Marge Schott story), Gary Smith, compilation books by top writers (Red Smith, Frank DeFord, Reilly, etc.)

 

I really wish we had more craft discussions on here, because that's one of the things I really enjoyed the most when I first joined SJ. But hey, you can't really do much about that.

Lots of great stuff mentioned here. Some of my favorites are Gay Talese, David Halberstam, and Roger Angell. The Gay Talese Reader has some great essays about how he became a writer and how he became one of the best ever. Do yourself a favor and buy The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White (White is also Angell's stepfather).

Also, look at the stuff Nieman Storyboard (http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/) does on a regular basis. Some great insight on there. And in a lot of the books I'm reading, there's some great insights into process and craft in the introductions and prefaces.

I know I've rattled off a lot of magazine writers. and was wondering who are some of everybody's favorite beat writers were. I remember after last season's Bama-Auburn game, Chris Jones (immediately prepares for SJ hate) said he didn't want any part of writing a 750-word gamer on deadline after that, which attests to the skill it takes to write for whatever medium.