Is the burden of proof different in narrative journalism than in daily newspaper reporting? I think the narrative nonfiction writer is a more intensive and careful and probing reporter than the typical newspaper reporter. First of all, because of time. And second of all, because we are generally not satisfied with a single-source kind of reporting for anything that might remotely be disputed. So, if anything, the standards are higher. Do you feel that your writing “makes a difference”? Everybody wants to hope that’s true, no matter what we’re writing. There are very few ways to measure that. If you’re writing about issues that are of social importance and what you write garners some attention, provokes some thought, you can say that’s making a difference. Maybe a better measure of that is if you hear from people who have taken the time to read your work and let you know that it has been important to them. That it’s made them think, or moved them, or gotten them interested in something that they weren’t interested in before. But how do you measure what your impact is? It’s not like building a bridge, or teaching a child in a class, where you can actually see the results of what you do. It’s much more intangible. I got an e-mail not too long ago from someone who read No Matter How Loud I Shout and said, “You know, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in school, and now I’m studying to be a probation officer, because I want to work with kids like this.” I’ve heard things like that from time to time, and I don’t know what more you could ask for as a writer than that someone tells you that they’ve made a life decision based upon something you’ve written. Interview by Tricia Brick (LNF/ UO 2003), assistant editor of Etude, former senior writer at the Boulder Weekly. For more information about Ed Humes and his work, go to www.edwardhumes.com.