The House that Swanson built

Remembering the obscure colleges various NBA players attended could feel like an Olympic sport, glasses lay waste on the table as it drives pub conversations for hours upon end. Whilst most dig into the deep trenches of the mind to remember that Kawhi Leonard went to San Diego State – Hearst award-winning journalist Shelby Swanson has such knowledge at the tip of her tongue.

“I became a sports fanatic because I was surrounded by it from young,” Swanson said. “My father played baseball at a decent level, my grandfather worked with the Boston Red Sox organisation and another grandpa played football at Iowa State.”

Her idiosyncratic all-knowing nature was apparent to her parents from an early age. As the oldest of three siblings, Swanson dominated the dinner table talk, rambling on about any and everything. Her mother joked that her non-stop chatter prevented one of her younger brothers from ever getting in a word, forcing him to become non-verbal for a while - and needing speech therapy.

“She said I was born with the gift of the gab or whatever, a bit of a chatterbox,” Swanson said. “I’m a nerd of sorts, I can talk for hours about something I’m passionate about.” Though seen as a slight grievance in the past, such traits have been influential in her journalism career.

An obsession with sports and growing up in Chapel Hill meant Swanson was engrossed in one of college's deepest rivalries with North Carolina and Duke, both of which have led to a promising career as sports editor at the Daily Tar Heel, whilst attending the University of North Carolina.

Though typically only a sportswriter, Swanson tried her hand at feature writing in retired professor John Robinson’s class, quoting a need to expand her horizons.

It was here where she developed and sourced a story that went on to win the Hearst Journalism Award for 2023 after she wrote a piece on Charla Strawser, a divorce lawyer who saw her mother murdered at an early age by the hands of her father.

The Hearst Award was founded in 1960 to encourage and promote journalism at the collegiate level. Participants from schools around the country submit their work in the hopes of it being recognized, also receiving grants that help bolster their journalism careers. Robinson played a vital role in submitting Swanson’s work after he deemed it one of the most complete and multifaceted stories he had ever come across.

With Strawser’s story being so nuanced and awash with emotion, Swanson leaned on her direct approach to deliver the story.

The blunt charisma of Swanson is something shared in her writing. Rejecting a grandiose narrative approach, she prefers to place a heavy emphasis on telling the story and the facts.

“It was important in my mind to report this story in the most authentic way possible and allow Strawser’s narrative voice to be heard by the narrator,” Swanson said. “I personally don’t believe in implementing your voice as the writer into someone else’s story – I think it can be slightly egotistical but that’s my opinion.”

Swanson met Strawser through her mother who Strawser is a friend of. It was a hesitant ask at first, as Strawser had yet to truly unveil the details of that night with her friend, so Swanson was unaware if she would allow her to tell her story.

Fortunately, she did. With Strawser living in Atlanta, Georgia, it meant all interviews had to be conducted online between her and Swanson. It being such a delicate story, meeting in person would’ve been preferential Swanson added, but Zoom would have to do.

Routinely, interviews would end on such a melancholic note, especially when Strawser would explain the details of the exact moment her mother was murdered, that Swanson would wound up in tears – needing walks and time away from people to exude the morbid details told to her through the screen.

Professor Robinson recalled Swanson coming to him with the idea for the story. “I heard it and thought that it was one hell of an idea and I wanted to help her get it right,” Robinson said.

The complexity at times would have Swanson lost within the story, as she found issues structuring certain aspects or picking what to include.

There was no overarching judiciary to what was good or bad, that was a particular section where Swanson was at odds to include, “Strawser and her brother would stay with their aunt. There was one night where they swear they heard sounds, and they swore was the dad outside,” said Swanson, “how do you include that, how do you structure that?”

Robinson spent a great deal of time fixing and mending the story with Swanson.

“I spent a lot of time with her getting the right flow and structure, making sure the introduction hooked the reader, because if you don’t do that in the first five paragraphs you’ve lost me.”

Robinson prides himself on being a harsh editor when it comes to stories. Having been the judge and jury over many pieces and former Hearst winners he looked at Swanson’s final piece with resounding confidence.

“Her finished piece was probably the only one I was positive that was going to win a Hearst Award. It was just that good.” Robinson said.

Swanson ended up being the perfect person to deliver this piece, culminating a trajectory former Sports Illustrated writer and professor at UNC, Tim Crothers has said Swanson has been on since her adolescence.

Before entering college, Swanson had already interacted with Crothers at one of his summer writing classes.

“I think I first met Shelby at something called the Carolina Sports Journalism camp, which I've mentioned is for rising juniors and seniors,” Crothers said, “I believe it was in 2020 when we were in the midst of the pandemic, and so the camp was virtual. And she was one of 22 intrepid young, aspiring journalists who still came to the camp.”

Her unwavering desire to improve was something first highlighted during the camp.

Crothers wondered why those 22 students even bothered to attend and listen to him and other industry professionals yap on for hours. After the camp, in search of reviews, Crothers reached out to Swanson at her high school of East Chapel Hill – next thing she was walking into his Writing and Reporting class in her freshman year of college.

Both Swanson’s parents attended UNC and despite a flirtation with the many schools of Boston, she decided to stick with her southern slice of heaven and attend the Hussmann School of Journalism here at Chapel Hill.

Swanson stuck with Crothers, and he was unable to shake her off. She stood out routinely in his class, going above and beyond any student with her knack for taking the extra mile.

“Swanson is one of the most driven students that I've ever come across.”

Such drive was truly apparent when Swanson once again planted herself with Crothers in his creative sports writing class. Typically, given the desirability and difficulty of it, Crothers reserves spots in the class for juniors and seniors and not for the freshman Swanson was at the time.

“Somehow, she did some kind of magic to get into that class, and I tried to talk her out of it because I thought she was too young, and she pretty much said FU!” Crothers said.

Swanson’s reason for this fell into the simple doctrine that “why would I wait to be a better writer when I can be a better one right now?”

In a class full of seniors, Swanson was the best writer in that class.

Of all the final sports feature pieces, Swanson’s was the best.

“At that point as a freshman, we were already talking about her as the sports editor at the Daily Tar Heel, she already had her mind on it,” Crothers said. “It’s like a blueprint for her, everything’s mapped out and it’s something she’s largely created herself, and it’s all down to the driven aspect she’s got.”

Swanson recalls the moment she won the Hearst award, nestled deep in the Mad Hatter café in Durham, her phone buzzed with the message “DUDE”. Robinson was ecstatic to the point only one word was used, Swanson replied “What?”

Mocha latte and avocado toast lined the table where she put her phone down again, suitable sustenance for a celebration. Her phone buzzed again now to the incoming Facetime call from Robinson – confirmation of another step on the blueprint coming to fruition.

“There are certain people that walk through the door of Hussmann, that already have a gift,” Crothers’s said, “they’re diamonds, and with that, they may need a bit of polishing, but with Swanson, she could’ve written a Hearst award-winning story the moment she walked into my class.”