Erika Hayasaki

Writer at Freelance

Writer at The Reported Essay

https://t.co/uwGxcWvqv6. No longer active here. Find me on my website, LinkedIn or https://t.co/JTHbTbbM1k

Featured in: Favicon

medium.com Favicon

nytimes.com Favicon

bbc.com

wsj.com

time.com

latimes.com Favicon

newsweek.com Favicon

sfgate.com Favicon

theatlantic.com Favicon

wired.com + 87 more

Articles

The Real History of the Complex Relationship Between Chinese and Black Americans in the Mississippi Delta

1 month ago | smithsonianmag.com | Erika Hayasaki

The remarkable success of the movie “Sinners” has sparked a renewed interest in how the two communities wrestled with life under Jim Crow When I visited Rodell Sing Jr. in 2021, piles of books lined the floors and shelves of his Minnesota assisted living apartment. Among them were the classic American history chronicle Lies My Teacher Told Me, the political thriller Hong Kong, the works of T.S. Eliot and a travel guide about China.
How to Immerse

2 months ago | thereportedessay.substack.com | Erika Hayasaki |David Finkel

Last year, rather than starting with exploring a topic, as journalists tend to do, Ruby Cramer set out on a reporting journey thinking instead about an emotion: anger. Ruby is an enterprise reporter at The Washington Post, who finds feature ideas off the news. She began talking to her editors about exploring a “coarsening” she noticed happening within communities and between people.
Studying Narrative Nonfiction

Mar 21, 2025 | thereportedessay.substack.com | Erika Hayasaki

I teach in a lovely little undergraduate degree program at the University of California, Irvine, where students spend their academic quarters reading, reporting, and writing features and narrative nonfiction. The Literary Journalism Program was launched over two decades ago by Barry Siegel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former Los Angeles Times writer, who steadily built the curriculum into a unique and truly special major, unrivaled when it comes to other undergraduate degrees.
The Doctor, the Biohacker, and the Quest to Treat Their Long Covid

Mar 12, 2025 | menshealth.com | Erika Hayasaki

THE DOCTOR IS HERE NOW. Matthew Light, MD, pops onscreen in his baby-blue T-shirt beneath a cardigan. He’s 42, with hair graying on the sides, a narrow nose, thick dark eyebrows. Patients from all walks of life log on from living rooms, kitchens, sofas, beds.
Lynell George on Reporting the Essay

Nov 21, 2024 | thereportedessay.substack.com | Erika Hayasaki |Courtney Maum |Blaise Zerega |Matt Haber

Last week, in a post on story structures, I mentioned “the reported essay.” Here is how I described the form:A first-person story grounded in reflection and reporting. These pieces weave facts, scenes, interviews and research with personal observations and narrative storytelling.
How a freelancer’s story instincts landed a piece in The New York Times

Nov 13, 2024 | niemanstoryboard.org | Erika Hayasaki |Kim Cross

Three weeks after the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century blackened a huge swath in Maui, freelance journalist Erika Hayasaki felt called to go there and tell the story. At home in Southern California, she saw dramatic TV coverage and news stories about escapes, but noticed that “information felt very muddled.” “I thought: There is a need for narratives there,” she recalls. After reaching out to a few editors, some of whom were on vacation, she wasn’t able to secure a story assignment.
Daughters of the Bomb: A Story of Hiroshima, Racism and Human Rights

Oct 11, 2024 | narratively.com | Erika Hayasaki

In honor of Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors, being awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, we’re republishing this important Narratively Classic here this weekend. I keep a red file folder, its edges faded from nearly three decades of exposure to dust and light. Inside, the title words I typed in 1991: “The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima.” It is the first research paper I ever wrote.
Becoming Trauma Informed

Oct 1, 2024 | thereportedessay.substack.com | Erika Hayasaki

It has been nearly two decades since I wrote about Binna. But her story stays with me. I wonder if she’s doing okay. I question if I did everything right. It was 2006, on a weekend shift at the Los Angeles Times, when I first learned about a murder-suicide. Another reporter had written up details based on police reports: A father had shot his entire family in Koreatown before killing himself. Only his teenage daughter survived, a bullet to her head. In the news story, she had not been named.
Erika Hayasaki | Substack

Sep 23, 2024 | substack.com | Erika Hayasaki

Independent journalist writing features (clips: erikahayasaki.com/longform ). Author of two narrative nonfiction books: The Death Class and Somewhere Sisters. Professor in the Literary Journalism Program at UC Irvine. Bio: erikahayasaki.com
How a freelancer's story instincts landed a piece in The New York Times | Nieman Storyboard

Sep 19, 2024 | niemanstoryboard.org | Kim Cross |Erika Hayasaki

Tagged with Dramatic Tension Ledes narrative structure Nut grafs Wildfires Writing scenes By Kim Cross Three weeks after the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century blackened a huge swath in Maui, freelance journalist Erika Hayasaki felt called to go there and tell the story. At home in Southern California, she saw dramatic TV coverage and news stories about escapes, but noticed that “information felt very muddled.” “I thought: There is a need for narratives there,” she recalls. After...