The workshop's scope reached far beyond police blotters and courthouse records, however. Elaborating on the theme of "The Art of Being There," Humes offered an in-depth seminar focusing on the skills and challenges particular to immersion journalism.

Among Humes' six nonfiction books are the critically acclaimed Baby ER, an intimate look at the doctors, nurses, parents and babies in a cutting-edge neonatal intensive care unit, and No Matter How Loud I Shout, a harrowing and heartbreaking glimpse behind the closed doors of the American juvenile justice system. For each of his books, Humes delved deeply into the worlds he chose to portray. He uses his considerable reporting skills and discerning eye for detail to make his readers feel as though they are witness to the scenes and subcultures he describes.

A former daily newspaper reporter, Humes received the Pulitzer Prize for specialized reporting in 1989 for his writing on the military. When he made the switch to book writing, Humes faced a new set of challenges. His first book, Buried Secrets, also marked his first foray into the genre of immersion journalism. For the book, Humes spent considerable time in Mexico investigating the milieu of the murderous cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo.

But when Humes returned home to the States and sat down to write, he realized that for all his meticulous reporting, he had missed the information he needed to tell this story well.

"It wasn't enough to have some information about what the people present were doing at that moment, who they were and what they looked like," Humes said. "I also needed to have more of their personal history, their thoughts and feelings, events in their lives quite apart from the story that I was telling...so that I could establish them as characters and create a true narrative."

Humes emphasized that while students would be well served by study and practice of a newspaper reporter's research techniques, the immersion journalist needs to be attuned to different kinds of information and details.

He compared the immersion journalist's task to that of a filmmaker: In addition to the writerly elements of character and narrative, immersion journalists employ the literary equivalents of camera angles, music, imagery and framing. By evoking such seemingly insignificant details as the facial expressions of peripheral characters or the quality of the light or sound in a place, writers can "put readers in the moment," Humes said.

"On the one hand, you're using the same skills that you've always used as a reporter to gather information," Humes said. "But you're turning them on to different areas and prying loose information that may seem extraneous—and would be extraneous for a straight news article—but which is totally essential to create a textured and layered world, environment and characters."

After reading and discussing select examples of immersion journalism, workshop participants wrote detailed descriptive studies designed to "put the reader in a place." The second day of the workshop was devoted to sharing and critiquing these set pieces. For the third and final day, students pitched ideas for a 3,000-word immersion journalism project to be researched and written over the course of the term. During the workshop, Humes also provided a practical overview of the criminal justice system.

First-year literary nonfiction student Kurt Kamin called the workshop a valuable experience. "Humes provided constructive advice about pursuing my story ideas," Kamin said. "He shared his knowledge of the legal system and how to obtain information from some of our most bureaucratic institutions."

The Writing About... workshop series is a cornerstone of the literary nonfiction graduate program. Each year, the SOJC brings two established nonfiction writers to lead intensive writing workshops, offering LNF students the opportunity to work with writers of different styles, personalities, approaches and areas of expertise.

"I wanted to invite someone who could demonstrate that it is possible to write with passion and compassion and not be dismissed as advocacy writing or melodrama, and I think Ed Humes does that very well," said Professor Lauren Kessler, director of the LNF program.

Past workshop presenters have included Susan Orlean, Barbara Ehrenreich, Alex Kotlowitz and Peter Mathiessen.