C. J. Chivers, senior writer for The New York Times, will deliver the 32nd Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lecture at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard on Nov. 29, 2012. The annual Morris Lecture honors an American overseas correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs who is invited to Harvard to speak about international reporting. Read more
For 30 of his 42 years at The Globe and Mail, three weekly columns were influential in determining a book's success. Although his byline disappeared with his retirement more than 20 years ago, former Globe and Mail literary editor William French is still remembered by former colleagues and literary admirers as a giant of his day — Canada's dominant literary critic during a formative period of the national literature. Read more
Yossi Melman, a 1990 Nieman Fellow, has joined the Israeli news website Walla after 27 years with the daily newspaper Haaretz. He will continue writing about security and intelligence matters. Read more
Daniel Rapoport, a 1971 Nieman Fellow and longtime Washington journalist who started a publishing house which issued books that likely would never otherwise see print, died April 11. He was 79. Read more
Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation have named the winners of the 2012 Lukas Prize Project Awards. Vanderbilt University law professor Daniel Sharfstein has won the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White." The Mark Lynton History Prize goes to Sophia Rosenfeld, a University of Virginia professor, for Common Sense: A Political History. And Jonathan M. Katz, a former AP reporter and editor, is winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster." Read more
The Nieman Foundation, in partnership with the Harvard Writers at Work Lecture Series, will host narrative journalism icon Gay Talese in conversation with Esquire magazine’s Chris Jones, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award. The Nov. 18 event starts at 2 p.m. in Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, and is free and open to the public. Read more
Journalism is a powerful tool in society. At its best, journalism has the power to expose corruption, restore justice, and spur societal reform. Too often, however, a journalist’s work is adulterated with other motives: the desire to please a boss, get their story on the front page, get a promotion or make friends in the business. Read more
Nieman Foundation curator Bob Giles retired at the end of June after 11 years on the job. During his tenure, he found new ways to strengthen the Nieman Fellowship program and expand the foundation’s critical role in discussions about the future of serious journalism. Giles recently reflected on his time at Harvard and began by describing what it has been like to lead the Nieman Foundation for more than a decade. Read more
A.C. Thompson, a staff reporter for ProPublica whose work frequently exposes social injustice and the abuse of power, is winner of the 2011 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. The Nieman Foundation will present the award at Boston University on October 4, 2011, during a ceremony co-hosted by BU’s College of Communication. Read more
Nieman curator Bob Giles writes about “The Value of the Nieman Fellows’ Experience” in the Spring 2011 issue of Nieman Reports. His comments about the 50th anniversary of the South African Nieman Fellowship prompted R.C. Smith, NF ’61, to reflect on his own Nieman year. Read more