Just like any other business, writing is a lot about relationships. Here are some writers I know and trust who hang a shingle on the web. Siri Carpenter
A social psychologist by training, Carpenter is intrigued by psychology, neuroscience, behavioral genetics, behavioral economics, sociology, and animal behavior, and fluent enough in the science to have spent the last year out of feature writing as she works on a textbook. To see what we're missing, read this. Dan Drollette
Oscilating in an atypical orbit between Northampton, Massachusetts and Oz, Drollette’s beautiful photography and fascinating adventures always leave me wanting to book a flight Down Under. Who ever knew there was such a bird as the Lord Howe woodhen? Jack El-Hai
What I wish: That everybody out there inhabiting domain names like “lobotomist.com” could see as sharply and write as well. Check for yourself. Michael Fitzgerald
This first I learned about Michael Fitzgerald was his confession—on his website no less—that he believes “print will rise again.” Can you ask for anything more from your technology correspondent? Jonathan Green
Before I ever met Jonathan Green I read his riveting account of being knocked around by eight skinheads in north London. How’s this for a c.v.: “He has broken a world high-altitude skydive for Men's Journal, fenced Cuban Olympic foil champion Oscar Garcia in Havana, ridden a bull (one and a half seconds) in the US south and narrowly escaped death in the Nevada desert with a 198 mph blow-out in a Dodge Viper. He's also briefly trained as a stuntman and was unwittingly roped in as an LA bounty hunter for Esquire.” Jacqueline Jaeger Houtman
With a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology, call Houtman if you're contemplating anything like using a mouse coronavirus as a model for multiple sclerosis. She’s funny, too, with an unpublished opus of panda jokes and this award-winning definition: Coyotus Interruptus: A momentary suspension of the law of gravity, usually accompanied by the sudden realization of impending gravitational acceleration. The term is derived from the name of its discoverer, Wile E. Coyote (Carnivorous vulgaris), who often observed the phenomenon when, in pursuit of Road Runner (Accelerati incredibilis), he was propelled at high velocity from a precipice of sedimentary rock by an apparatus of his own contrivance or by a commercial product, such as Fleet-Foot Jet-Propelled Tennis Shoes (ACME, Inc).
Robin Mejia
Mejia says she writes about what interests her, and her omnivorous curiosity has lead her from death to hacking to taxes. Despite her love of magazine writing, Mejia dared to cross over into the world of television. The resulting CNN documentary—Reasonable Doubt: Can Crime Labs Be Trusted?—netted Mejia a prestigious Livingston Award. Sue Russell
Russell writes primarily about crime, health and social issues, most famously Lethal Intent, about the female serial killer Aileen Wuornos portrayed by Charlize Theron in “Monster”. “Digging is my pleasure and even as a fledgling health and beauty writer, I delighted in exposing so-called semi-permanent hair colors that weren’t, labeling issues and the like,” she says. One piece on overseas child abductions led to an Interpol arrest of a kidnapper. Rebecca Skloot
Rebecca Skloot takes lyrical note of living things, be they dogs, high-end tropical fish, or decades-old cell lines. Stay tuned for her first book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Barry Yeoman
Barry Yeoman’s skillful narratives and dogged investigative powers are the envy of all thinking journalists, but this accomplishment I love most: Immediately after naming North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin “the official state vegetable,” Martin called a press conference to announce that he was not, in fact, a vegetable. |