Stuff I didn't write

Over the past year, I've been lucky enough to work with some of the best writers in Dallas on a series of  essays for The Dallas Morning News.  Tom Huang has been overall series editor. Some of those pieces we've collaborated on have included:

• Ben Fountain on What Haiti Means to Dallas' Soul and on Dallas poet Robert Trammell. 
• Willard Spiegelman on  Thanksgiving and the Booker T. Washington Magnet School for the Arts.
• Alex Lemon on creativity and fatherhood. (Alex has become a regular contributor to the books pages as well. Here's his latest review, of Antonya Nelson's "Bound.")

Meanwhile, News editor Bob Mong has graciously mentioned me in his weekly column to readers for my work with the books pages and for my work as health editor. Thanks, Bob.

Interview with David Wroblewski

I spoke with author David Wroblewski for this story, which ran in January 2010. You can click on the jump or see it on the website of  The Dallas Morning News.

Food writer? Ummm...

Some friends recently recalled this 2005 story, which involved my eating gourmet food and drinking wine with Fess Parker. Looking back, I can think of about half a dozen ways to make this a better story. But I post it here for their enjoyment. And in case anybody else needs a story that involves me eating steak and drinking wine with kindly TV stars.

Recent reviews and coverage

In print, I recently reviewed Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans, by A.J. Baime.

On the Texas Pages blog, I offered mini-reviews of Art in America, by Ron McLarty, and The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter, by Holly Robinson.

And I attended the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, which I covered via Twitter. (Sadly, Twitter is no longer displaying the Tweet from the audience member who mistook me for being a member of Ira Glass' "posse.")

NEA Arts Journalism fellowship

I recently completed a fellowship with the NEA Arts Institute in Theater and Musical Theater at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Journalism. While there, my fellow fellows and I studied with the likes of Dominic Papatola, Robert Christgau and Douglas McLennan. We also had sessions with the likes of Kay Cole, Jack Viertel, Ken Brecher and many more, including John Fleck, who put on a particularly memorable performance.

You can read about my fine group of fellows here.

If you are considering applying to the program, by all means do so. It may change your outlook on the future of journalism. Full details are posted here. Tell Sasha that Mike sent you.

Narrative work

From early 2002 until late 2006, I edited the Sunday features section of The Dallas Morning News. I was fortunate to be surrounded by phenomenal talent -- our staff included a Pulitzer finalist, a Poynter lecturer, a Nieman fellow and many people of equal caliber. The department won a Missouri Lifestyles Award and was ranked among America's top features sections by the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors.

We all were students of the narrative form, and one of the best pieces I worked on was a four-part series called "Call of the River," about life along the Rio Grande, written by Beatriz Terrazas and photographed by Erich Schlegel.

I also worked with Bryan Woolley on "A Writer Begins," his serial memoir of his early days in journalism in 1950s El Paso.

I worked with talented young writers as well, such as Katharine Goodloe, who spun a narrative about the opening of a Nobu restaurant in Dallas (with contributions from veteran writer Michael Granberry.)

For a period, each week I was editing full-length Sunday features of this nature along with a feature-length profile. (I can't find any of them online still, but will update with links if possible.)

And thanks to a team of great designers and photographers, I also learned a lot about visual journalism. I can't take credit for the award-winning design work and photography that they created. But I'm pleased to have had a role as their enabler.

Getting personal

Over the years, now and then, I've contributed a handful of first-person columns for the features pages. Each one seemed like a good idea at the time. Among the hard-hitting topics I have tackled:

How to travel like a Dad.

Halloween horrors in Dallas.

A newcomers' guide to the Dallas-Fort Worth area (written before the widespread use of GPS, but possibly still valid.)

Probably the one that got the most reaction ran on New Year's Eve 2002. Apparently, a lot of married couples feel this way. I'm reprinting it below.