I’ve spent most of my career asking questions, listening to the answers, and finding the story that wasn’t obvious on the first pass.
I’m Grant Glickson — freelance journalist, writer and editor.
Early on, I wrote extensively as a freelancer for The New York Times, along with Newsday, Blitz, Hardball and Exercise & Health.
I also spent years covering high school sports for The New York Times, working as both reporter and editor, and interviewing hundreds of student-athletes along the way. That job taught me more than how to cover a game — it taught me how to talk with teenagers, put them at ease, and ask the follow-up question that actually gets you somewhere.
"I've spent my career finding stories. Let me help your student find theirs."
- Grant Glickson
A CAREER BUILT AROUND QUESTIONS AND WORDS
From journalism I ended up, of all places, in the labor movement — though interviewing and writing stayed at the center of the job. As a union representative, I sat down constantly with employees facing discipline and had to sort out what had actually happened. That meant hearing someone’s first version of events, then asking another question, and often another after that, until I had something close to the real picture.
Different setting than a newsroom. Same instincts.
Writing stayed part of the job too — newsletters, a President’s Column, member communications — taking material that could easily be dull or overly technical and making it something people would actually read.
FROM INTERVIEWS TO COLLEGE ESSAYS
All of that ends up mattering here. I’ve interviewed people for stories, interviewed employees trying to explain a messy situation, and interviewed a few hundred high school students along the way.
What I’ve noticed across all three: people are usually bad judges of what’s interesting about their own experiences. You’ll hear an answer and know there’s a better one sitting right behind it — that’s when you ask again.
I use that same instinct with students. My job isn’t to invent their story or write it for them. It’s to interview, listen, push back and edit, until they’ve found something worth saying and can say it in a way that actually sounds like them.
