M.F.A. in Nonfiction

With seven Emmys under her belt for her work with VICE News and VICE News Tonight, Neda Toloui-Semnani, M.F.A ’15, is no stranger to keeping an audience’s attention, the perfect skill for her role as assistant teaching professor of journalism for the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University.

Toloui-Semnani is currently storyediting a narrative podcast for Bloomberg News that will be available soon. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, VICE News, New York magazine, The Baffler, and Roll Call. Her memoir, They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents, was published in 2021 by Little A. She was formerly core faculty at Goucher College’s M.F.A. in Nonfiction, bringing dynamic and creative mentoring. Toloui-Semnani holds a Master of Science in gender and social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

You’re someone who seems to cross forms of media with ease. What goes through your mind as you’re changing narrative storytelling frames?

I love that it seems that it’s with ease—I’m not sure it always feels that way. But I do think I’m someone who tends to think cross-media. For example, I like writing scenes in prose; writing for television taught me about incorporating mise-en-scène, economy of language, and dialogue, and writing audio taught me the importance of specificity and detail but also the musicality of language. Also, working in audio and visual media has been an unbelievable help to me with my longform print work, while working in spot news helped me craft breaking news television scripts.

What’s true for all media is the journalist or creator needs to get their reps in; they need to welcome feedback, perhaps especially when it stings the most, and they need to be willing to pivot. Working across print, tv, and audio has taught me how to think through story. We absorb narrative slightly differently on the page than we do on the screen or through headphones. And gliding between each has made me a strong story editor, which might be one of my most favorite things to do.

In part, it’s because the building blocks are the same: character, tension, evolution, resolution. You need an act structure, good pacing, and on and on. In longform narrative and/or serialized storytelling, this doesn’t change.

What made you return to Goucher as a mentor?

I learned how to make television while I was a writer at VICE News Tonight, which means I had the strange and wonderful experience of sitting and scripting with producers for hours, days, sometimes weeks to make a piece work. A lot of those early days were figuring out how writing worked, and I learned from the producers and editors. At the same time, I was writing my memoir manuscript and going through edits. I watched how my prose writing improved with my experience writing and editing scripts. I felt like Goucher College was home to nonfiction storytelling, and what I had learned in the newsroom and in those days toiling at my desk on my book would be helpful. I love working with people, especially on stories they’re passionate about, so being a mentor felt like a right move. Plus, my mentors helped shape me. I wanted to give something to this community I love so much.

Do you have any particular personal research topics you’re interested in pursuing in the near future?

I don’t know about research topics the way a straight academic might think about it, but I am always interested in and committed to reporting on stories [that cover] racial, gender, and reproductive justice. These topics are so broad that it means I get to cover almost anything. Right now, for example, I’m storyediting a narrative podcast series for Bloomberg about deepfakes. It’ll be released in 2025 and it is really dark, but I think it explores masculinities in young men and how that directly impacts how girls and young women can function in the world in very specific and often unconscious ways.