{"id":13063,"date":"2014-10-22T03:46:16","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T03:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/david-finkel-speaks-at-ualbany-2\/"},"modified":"2014-10-22T03:46:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T03:46:16","slug":"david-finkel-speaks-at-ualbany-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/david-finkel-speaks-at-ualbany-2\/","title":{"rendered":"David Finkel speaks at UAlbany"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Author<\/a><\/p>\n

Journalist\u00a0and author\u00a0David Finkel. Photo from nationalwritersseries.org<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By Kyle Plaske<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

theaspnews@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

On Oct. 9 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel visited the University at Albany to promote his newest book \u201cThank You For Your Service,\u201d which chronicles a group of American soldiers suffering from psychological trauma after returning home from combat in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> Students, faculty, and members of the public gathered in the Science Library Standish Room, where Finkel led the informal hour-long seminar, organized by the New York State Writer\u2019s Institute. While he responded to audience questions regarding journalism and his writing process, the discussion was largely centered on his experiences reporting from war-torn Kosovo in the late 1990s and, most recently, America\u2019s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> During the 2007 surge in Iraq, Finkel was embedded with a battalion of army infantry soldiers to collect research for his first book, \u201cThe Good Soldiers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cI was sad and I was scared,\u201d Finkel said. \u201cI\u2019m not a big tough guy, I don\u2019t get an adrenaline rush like some war reporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> In \u201cThank You For Your Service,\u201d Finkel revisits the same soldiers after returning home to Middle America as they struggle to heal their psychological wounds and mend unstable personal relationships.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cWhen these guys came home, it occurred to me that I hadn\u2019t finished the story,\u201d Finkel said. \u201cI felt I had to finish the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> He said his journalistic process begins with asking a question, and then seeking to answer it through reporting. \u201cI come up with a question I\u2019m engaged with, then reporting, then indexing notes and transcribing tapes, and then I write an outline,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a one sentence at a time kind of guy, if I\u2019m having a hard time writing, it\u2019s probably because I haven\u2019t organized well enough.\u201d He added, \u201cI just don\u2019t like looking at my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> Finkel spent a year writing \u201cThank You For Your Service\u201d, and said he found it difficult to maintain a close rapport with the soldiers and their spouses while also having to preserve traditional reportorial objectivity and integrity. During the seminar, he refused to answer an audience question as to where he obtained some of the book\u2019s source material.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cI\u2019m not going to talk about my sources,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery sentence in the book is defensible as a piece of reporting. If I\u2019m not there and I\u2019m relying on someone else\u2019s account, it\u2019s not easy to trust their sources as primary information. What I trust is what I see.\u201d He added that some information in the book was obtained using government documents, court records, telephone call transcripts, and personal correspondence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> Finkel, who leads a team of six journalists as an editor for the Washington Post, also spoke about his distinctive style of long-form reporting, which he calls immersion journalism. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of journalism that moves me, it\u2019s all about learning something more about the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the only kind I read, but it seems to be the only kind I can write.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> While he stressed the demanding nature of his work reporting serious, complicated issues, he also remained fixed on his objective as a journalist.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cWriting these books was unimaginably tough,\u201d he said. \u201cSome days I\u2019m sick of thinking about it, and some days I\u2019m sick of not thinking about it enough.\u201d He continued, \u201cI just want to figure out how I can make people pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> When asked by an audience member about the absence of his own politics in his books, Finkel retorted, \u201cWho cares about my views? I\u2019m a narrative journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cThat\u2019s not what I\u2019m trained to do,\u201d Finkel said. \u201cThere\u2019s no \u2018me\u2019 in these books at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cIt\u2019s their story, not mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalist\u00a0and author\u00a0David Finkel. Photo from nationalwritersseries.org By Kyle Plaske Senior Staff Writer theaspnews@gmail.com On Oct. 9 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel visited the University at Albany to promote his newest book \u201cThank You For Your Service,\u201d which chronicles a group of American soldiers suffering from psychological trauma after returning home from combat in Iraq. \u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[3962,3963,3964,984],"class_list":["post-13063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-david","tag-finkel","tag-speaks","tag-ualbany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}