mission:

bio:

My main clients over the years have been the Ann Arbor Observer (since 1992)(circulation 100,000) and internationally-distributed publications of the University of Michigan (U-M) (since 1991) (with circulations up to 300,000).  My first five articles for U-M were written and sent from Europe, while I was living in Italy for two years.

  • Among the dozens of articles I have written for the Observer, I have explored and gained insight into the Ann Arbor Roma (gypsy) community; the homeless mentally ill; and an Ojibway First Nation tribe in Canada that successfully sued the U-M to get bones back from the U-M anthrology dept. that they believe belonged to their ancestors.

  • My article about the so-called "Baby Jessica" legal struggle changed the way the national media reported on the case and was cited in a leading law journal.  (Article co-written with Jennifer Dix.)

I have also written for the Ann Arbor-based Crazy Wisdom Journal, including a column called "Random Acts of Kindness."

 

awards:

journalism:

CASE national bronze award for University of Michigan brochure, fall 2014

(I wrote profiles of prominent alumni of School of Public Health)

poetry:

T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, University of Kent at Canterbury

Many of my poems have won awards from the Poetry Society of Michigan.

playwriting:

Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival regional award

***

mission statement:

I have earned my living as a writer for more than 30 years, and I have written stories and kept a journal since the age of seven. 

In recent years I have heard loud proclamations from every direction that journalism is dead.  I beg to differ.

One of my biggest heroes was actually quite small--if I remember aright, Ida Tarbell, the first investigative reporter, was only 4'11", and she brought down Standard Oil.  She said:  "Imagination is the only key to the future. Without it, none exists. With it, all things are possible."

Without accurate, fair, professionally-trained journalists, the machinery of our democracy--and our whole society--breaks down.  Journalism--and all writing--is about finding truth, justice, and fairness, to give society a compass to find its way.  And people need those things now more than ever.  So I'm not worried about my profession disappearing anytime soon!  I just continue springing up out of bed every morning and hurry to find out which new story is mine to tell.