I’m Zach Crizer, a journalist writing stories worth sharing. My passions for long-form storytelling and social media drive me to make sure being informed is never boring.

As a reporter and editor, I’ve illuminated stories through narrative storytelling and live-tweeting. Excited by journalism’s present and its future, I seek out innovative ways to tell people true stories. I want to make stories more enthralling and news more engaging.

I’ve written for The Roanoke Times, The New York Post and online long-form project Stry.us. In college, I led Virginia Tech’s independent student newspaper, the Collegiate Times, garnering recognition for my emphasis on real-time reporting and in-depth storytelling.

At the Collegiate Times, where I covered the aftermath of the 2007 massacre, I discovered the power of feature writing and social media reporting. Before my senior year, I spent the summer working on the city desk at The New York Post, where I covered crime and exposed issues in the city’s transportation system.

After graduating, I joined the Stry.us team in Springfield, Mo., to conduct an experiment in long-form journalism. We told stories unique to this community that showed an “Interconnected America.” Over the course of a summer, I collaborated with the rest of the team to introduce our news outlet to readers, build an engaged audience and craft long-form narratives that resonated with readers.

After starting as an intern, I am now a reporter at The Roanoke Times, an award-winning daily paper in Southwest Virginia’s largest city. In addition to covering mayhem at night, I write features that help readers understand their city a little bit better.

And that’s really my mission: I’m a writer, reporter and editor of stories that help people make sense of the world around them, stories they turn around and tell their neighbor about. Stories worth sharing.