Northwest Science Writers Association

Environmental writer Ben Goldfarb will be speaking to Glenn Nelson, founder of The Trail Posse, on Dec. 13 at The Elliott Bay Book Company about his new book, Eager: The surprising, secret life of beavers and why the matter. NSWA is invited to chat with Goldfarb afterward at Quinn’s Pub.

For writers, synthesizing information from research and interviews to produce a story is a challenging task. And it can even be more complex for those writing features, longform stories, or even books. On Nov. 28, we learned ways to think about narrative, and how to take our reporting and make it into a compelling story.

Geoff Nunn, adjunct curator of space history at The Museum of Flight, joined us for an IMAX screening of “First Man” on Oct. 20 at the Pacific Science Center. After the movie, we got to chat about how it represented Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 space mission.

This panel on Oct. 6 at Lane Community College in Portland, Oregon focused on story ideas, tips and resources you need to dig deeper into science-based stories such as opioids, climate change and more.

Whether you’re a print journalist, multimedia producer, or PIO, interviewing is hugely important to your work. On Sept. 27, we delved into best practices for interviewing sources: how to prepare, put your interviewees at ease, ask questions that will get you the details you need, and suit your medium.

Wildfires in the western United States have become increasingly more common. They burn through forests, damage the ecology and threaten property and lives. Members and guests joined us on Aug. 2 at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory for an evening with wildfire researchers.

NSWA partnered with The People’s Science to put on an interactive workshop and write-a-thon for effectively communicating science to the public on July 29 at Naked City Brewery.

We toasted the summer with our friends at the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) on June 19 at Pono Ranch in Ballard.