Kristen Hinman

​Kristen Hinman, the award-winning staff writer for VVM's Riverfront Times in St. Louis, wowed the crowd at last weekend's Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Dallas. The annual gathering, organized by the University of North Texas and held at the rustic airport Hilton, celebrates narrative writing across the publishing spectrum, including newspapers, online, magazines and books. This year's other speakers included the inimitable Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated fame, who proved as humble in person as his high-concept stories are intimidating (and inspiring) to other writers, and Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden, the former Philadelphia newspaper reporter whose well-received keynote speech carried a subversive central theme: don't be afraid to fight with your editor. Hinman, who recently moved to Washington, D.C. after six years at the RFT, was invited to Dallas to talk about the art of profile writing. The crowd closely followed her play-by-play of the challenges--and personal attacks--she faced when telling the story of irascible St. Louis sports-talk-radio host Kevin Slaten.