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ABOUT

As a writer of character-driven narratives in history, science and culture, I love collaborating with creative partners in storytelling. The mediums range from books, articles, and short fiction to film, podcasts, and events. I work with tech and culture innovators, agencies, nonprofits, filmmakers, and science enterprises. Together we find the story and delve in for the deepest impact. The results often combine oral history, original research, and reporting.

My writing about people,  science, and the environment has appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Discover, Mother Jones, Science, Undark, and Oxford American.

What’s New

With Spark Media, I’m producing The People’s Recorder, a podcast about how history gets recorded, and who gets to tell it. The story features people of the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project and what their work means for us now. Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and state humanities councils, the series follows people who faced long odds and found their voices amid hard times. What does that mean for us now? Read the Poets & Writers article about how the series speaks to our current moment.

The series received a 2025 Signal Award and was a finalist for Best Indie podcast in the Ambie Awards. We’ve been gratified by listeners’ responses. Please check out this Q&A with Virginia Humanities and see why the Washington Post hailed the series as “fascinating.” Read my piece about uncovering a story in Virginia for the early episodes. Listen to episodes and sign up for alerts here. Check out upcoming events and please consider joining us at one.

Writing Specialties

  • History
  • Innovation & Creativity
  • Science and Health
  • Culture
  • Travel

How I Use Storytelling

I use storytelling to uncover connections between people and their worlds, and reveal emotional truths. My book Cork Wars weaves a true story with real-life characters. The narrative features spies, international black markets, and a patriotic wartime tree-planting campaign with kids, gardeners, and politicians. (You can order it in hardcopy, e-book or audio, and hear the interview with Sheila Kast on WYPR.) I assembled the story from in-depth interviews with family members, personal collections, and declassified government records. My work has ranked among top narratives by Longreads.

Another example is the 2017 book, Transformation of an Icon, about bioscience pioneer ATCC. Our work on that garnered a gold Stevie Award for Best Business Book. From my practice, I’ve shared storytelling techniques and strategies as a writing instructor and TEDx speaker on Creative Storytelling with teams.

Writing Instruction & Speaking

  • Johns Hopkins University M.A. in Science Writing, with Advanced Academic Programs (AAP). Learn about course offerings.
  • The Writer’s Center workshops include science writing and documentary film. Workshops show how people with a scientific background can start writing for the public and how non-scientists can weave science into their writing responsibly. View the upcoming workshop schedule»
  • Testimonial from one doc film workshop participant: “Your class helped so much … Because of your class, I was awarded a fellowship to travel to Japan and will be making a small documentary …”
  • Guest author with the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools program. Check out the program and request a visit on the program’s website.
  • Guest in book group discussions of my books.

I love joining book club sessions. To request a guest spot or speaking engagement, send me a tweet at @dataylor1 or visit my Contact page.

 

Awards

Collaborations

Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America (Wiley) explores America in the 1930s through writers who found their voices in that crisis. The book provided the basis for an award-winning documentary Smithsonian film, Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story. Listen to the NPR interview on All Things Considered.

For the podcast The People’s Recorder, our team is drawing from archival collections and new interviews to share a new journey through the Federal Writers’ Project story for listeners today. Sign up for updates here.

For the National Geographic illustrated book, The War of 1812 and the Rise of the U.S. Navy, co-author Mark Collins Jenkins and I combed personal collections and manuscripts in the Library of Congress for vivid and forgotten firsthand accounts and artifacts. Publishers Weekly called it “a captivating story that will entice military and American history buffs.”

With innovators and leaders in business, science and philanthropy, I team up to provide research and writing services that get your story into a compelling, publishable or producible form. From document research to interviews and oral histories, we work together to shape your story’s themes and highlights, create a roadmap, and bring it to completion. My track record includes a Gold Stevie for Best Business Book, Independent Publisher Book Awards, and more. See my entry in the Authors Guild directory and get in touch.