by Tamara Bell
Julia Prodis Sulek gave a heart thumping account of her 30-year reporting career. The local newspaper writer and Pulitzer-prize winner lives only 5 blocks from her family home in San Jose where her mother still lives. Julia had envisioned going to college and coming home to work for the town’s paper. But, as John Lennon said, “Life is something that happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” But to our benefit, her karmic trajectory returned her to us.
Her storytelling magic came from a lesson she learned on her first job at a small rural paper where she was assigned to follow up on a missing child case. After interviewing the bus driver who drove the children home, she wrote up the story and turned it in. But her boss enlightened her that she missed the background story by not hopping on the bus and talking to the driver as he dropped off the children on his route.
As a young AP reporter, she arrived just 3 hours after the Oklahoma City bombing finding the area roped off and closed to all but the first responders. Remembering that early career advice to follow the story, she nonchalantly walked in with the first responders ready to observe and report. She captured the gut-wrenching event as it was freshly occurring and her story actually ran in the New York Times the next morning since none of the “big boys” had yet made it to the scene. The famous photograph of a firefighter dashing out of the building while cuddling an infant and her accompanying write-up won her the finalist category for the Pulitzer Prize. That prize ultimately earned her the dream job back in her hometown, at Mercury News.
Julia advised us to stay aware of our surroundings when reporting. One day as she was stuck in traffic while pursuing a story about flooding, she noticed cowboys gathering on horseback and unloading paddle boats. Realizing she wasn’t moving, she immediately pulled over to inquire if there was a story here. The cattle in their attempt to flee the flood waters had collected on the highest point of a ridge which happened to be on the railroad tracks. The men confirmed that they were there to drive the cattle to safety. As was her mode of operation by this point, she hopped on board one of those boats so she could continue her interview. She had already phoned her office to request a photographer, so the whole dramatic and successful mission was spectacularly presented on the news earning her a whole new ranking.
Julia is perhaps best known for the six-segment story regarding the hanging of a 10-year old boy, a cold case she investigated and later turned into a podcast. The South Bay Writers audience remained glued to our seats, enthralled by Julia’s riveting accounts, to the very end. Here are a few “Pearls of Wisdom” culled from her talk:
- The shorter and more precise your words, the heavier the gravity.
- Have a clear vision of what you wish to convey and never make the reader struggle to understand your story.
- Capture the soul of your story. When you tear up, as you write, you know you have touched a nerve.
- Always remember to pull the emotion out of the story. Before submitting your story—ask yourself, “What is this story really about?”
- Don’t assume, always ask that next question to uncover the deeper emotional texture of your story. She’s been told many times, “I would never ask that question,” but those are exactly the questions which further your story. For example, don’t just report that someone died, find out how the murdered person lived their life.
- Dodge well-meaning gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are trying to protect the person who just went through a stressful experience but the truth is, many people find it cathartic to talk about their experience and make some meaning out of it.