Why we exist.
Assignment: is a nonprofit foundation that exists to help train and mentor talented journalists and writers-in-the-making to master the craft of investigative reporting and ambitious narrative nonfiction writing. We work with promising writers who dream of undertaking deep, difficult investigations and complex, meaningful stories at a time when there has never been a greater need for such work.
At Assignment, we’re not just about conventional investigative journalism.
To us, the best, most impactful stories require a combination of deep reporting, strong narrative, and beautiful prose.
As the great New Yorker investigative journalist Katherine Boo, author of the stunning Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, has put it:
“[Many journalists] maintain a sort of species difference between narrative and investigative reporting. Narrative writing must be soft and explanatory, while investigative reporting must be bullet-pointed and just the facts. This surprises and even saddens me. The best narrative isn’t soft, and the best investigative reporting isn’t only steel-plated facts. The best narrative pursues both readers and social change relentlessly.”