The Art of Crónica: How to Write Immersive, Voice-Driven Nonfiction
Learn the craft of Latin America’s greatest literary journalists—and bring immersive, perspective-rich storytelling techniques into your own work
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Cost: $295
Class Size Limit: 10
In Latin America, crónica represents the pinnacle of literary journalism: a flexible, boundary-defying form that blends rigorous reporting with the craft of great storytelling. While it shares DNA with creative nonfiction, crónica goes further—embracing subjectivity, voice, empathy, and political resonance in ways that feel immediate, immersive, and deeply human.
As Martín Caparrós—one of the great cronistas—has observed:
“Faced with the current media ideology, which tries to impose neutral language without a subject…the crónica uses the first person not to talk about oneself, but to point out there is a person who is watching, and who is telling the story it is only one of many possible points of view—and that’s what makes the crónica so political, so intimate.”
So what can you learn from crónica? Everything: point of view, voice, reporting, structure, and style.
The class is led by an accomplished Argentine journalist Javier Sinay, winner of the Gabriel García Márquez Award for Journalism—often considered the Spanish-language equivalent of the Pulitzer—for the piece “Rápido. Furioso. Muerto,” published in Rolling Stone. In this four-week workshop, journalists, memoirists, and lovers of narrative nonfiction will explore crónica’s unique power—and how its perspective-driven approach can elevate your own work.
We’ll read and discuss masterful crónicas (in English translation) by writers such as Rodolfo Walsh, Leila Guerriero, Julio Villanueva Chang, Gabriela Wiener, and Joseph Zárate. The instructor will also share the step-by-step process behind their own award-winning crónicas—showing how reporting becomes finished work.
Workshop Outline
Session 1: Roots of Crónica
Explore the form’s history and evolution, and learn how to identify compelling stories in everyday life. Learn to identify: which stories can be a crónica and which cannot.
Session 2: Finding the Story—Voice, Focus and Mirada
Examine tonal variation and develop strategies to maintain narrative focus while deepening your reporting.
Session 3: Reporting for Narrative
Learn how to build scenes from reported material—using detail, pacing, and key turning points—and develop a first-person voice with presence, not ego.
Session 4: Structure and the Art of the Ending
Bring it all together: structure, voice, reporting, and theme. Learn strategies for endings that resonate without forcing closure.
This is the right class for you if…
You’re writing memoir or personal essays and want to connect your story to broader social or political themes.
You work in journalism but feel constrained by traditional formats—and want more depth and voice.
You believe first-person nonfiction should reflect perspective and honesty—not self-indulgence—and want to strike that balance.
By the end of this class you will…
Turn raw reporting into vivid narrative scenes with detail, momentum, and meaning—without cliché.
Develop your mirada—your instinct for finding stories with emotional and cultural weight.
Use first-person narration as a tool for perspective, creating work that is both intimate and politically aware.
Build nonfiction narratives with structure, intention, and impact.
This 4-week class takes place on Thursdays from 1pm to 2pm ET, starting on May 7 and ending on May 28. All Narratively Academy classes are conducted online and accessible to students anywhere in the world.
This class will be recorded and shared with all enrolled students in case there are specific sessions you have to miss, but live attendance and participation at a majority of the live sessions is required.
Instructor Bio: Javier Sinay is a Buenos Aires–based journalist and author whose work sits at the forefront of Latin America’s crónica tradition. He is the author of several books, including The Murders of Moisés Ville: The Rise and Fall of the Jerusalem of South America (Restless, 2022), praised by Paul Theroux and Jon Lee Anderson, as well as Después de las 09:53 (2024) and Camino al Este (2019). In 2015, he received the Gabriel García Márquez Award from the Gabo Foundation for his crónica “Rápido. Furioso. Muerto,” published in Rolling Stone Argentina, where he also served as Deputy Editor; he previously won the Rodolfo Walsh Award for Best True Crime at Spain’s Semana Negra festival for his book Sangre joven. His work has appeared in leading international publications including La Nación, El Universal, Gatopardo, Etiqueta Negra, Jewish Quarterly, Tablet, Reportagen, and Asymptote, and his writing has been recognized by outlets like CrimeReads. A seasoned educator, Sinay has led workshops and seminars on crónica and creative nonfiction across Latin America, Europe, and the United States, including at Yale, UMass, Brandeis, GrubStreet, Lighthouse, and the Center for Fiction.
Registration Details: Seats in this class are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Prior to the start of your class you’ll receive an invitation to access the virtual classroom and view all class materials.
Cancellation Policy:
Full refund when canceling 7 or more days before the class start date.
50% refund when canceling less than 7 days before the class start date.
No cancellations after the class start date.
Scholarships: A limited number of sliding-scale, income-based scholarships are made available when possible. Apply for a scholarship here.
Questions? Email us at academy@narratively.com.