I'm a poet and journalist living in Southern Appalachia. As DigiDave's collegue from NewsTrust.net, I'm a fan and was glad when he got support from Knight to start Spot.us. Living in this region and writing about Mountaintop Removal, energy and the environment, I'm not quite ready to move to San Francisco, and apply for a job helping develop the site, so I'm glad that the project now has expanded to be national in scope. Look for a pitch soon.
I write regularly for The Guardian and have just had a piece commissioned by The Progressive. I also review books for my local paper, The Roanoke Times.
As Community Developer for NewsTrust.net, I was one of the contributors to that site's blog, covering the 2008 presidential election, election reform, the collaboration with HuffPo to find stories on John McCain and also writing a piece on disclosure and transparency. I also wrote entries for our blog on Huffington Post.
In case you're interested in my other writing available online, my blog on politics and the culture, The Writing Corner has received high reviews on NewsTrust. Here are a couple of examples, with links to the entries:
Also you'll find reviews and a link to a November 3,2008 piece at The Daily Yonder,
as well as a 2007 piece from the online journal Law Librarian's Resource Exchange, where I'm a regular essayist on Congressional legislation of social justice import
I've been a freelance journalist since 1974. I serve as an adviser to the online project CoalSwarm and have been a guest blogger for PRWatch about gun laws in Virginia, following the killings at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. I have articles online for the New River Voice on recommended charities and books from small presses, having written articles on mountaintop removal and the Children's Health Improvement Program for the print version. Earlier, I was contributing editor for the New River Free Press from 1988 until its last issue in 2007. Other non-fiction work has appeared in a variety of regional publications. My poems have appeared in anthologies and a variety of literary magazines.
I was the primary contributor to the Wikipedia article on the Sago Mine Disaster back in 2006 (which I'm chagrined to notice as of November 12, 2008 has a tag complaining about the formating that was posted in March of 2007. I'm guess this partly has to do with the fact that the method for annotating references changed mid-article.)
You can reach me me at communitypoweredreporting AT gmail.com.
