Environmental Writers Workshop – Burke Museum (Seattle) – April 21, 2012

We in the Pacific Northwest are fortunate to live not only in a place where nature abounds but also to live in place where place-based writers abound. Their writing brings in not only plants and animals, but also the human inhabitants, past and present, who dwell on the land. Whether it is exploring the wonderful world of feathers, considering the myriad ways of plants and animals of the the Pacific Northwest, or pondering the life of salmon in Seattle, these authors provoke us to reflect upon our own relationship to the natural world around us. Ultimately, they are forging a new way to look at nature and to develop deeper connections to place.

For the fourth year in a row, the Burke Museum brings together a trio of outstanding writers to present a one-day workshop on writing about the environment. Award-winning authors William Dietrich, Thor Hanson, and Judith Roche will lead classroom and field-based sessions, all taking place at the Burke Museum. They bring years of experience as writers, journalists, bloggers, and teachers. Each is an attentive observer who weaves together history, science, and field time into well-crafted, thought-provoking writing about the natural and cultural world.

Judith Roche is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Wisdom of the Body, an American Book Award winner, which was also nominated for a Pushcart. She has written extensively about our native salmon and edited First Fish, First People, Salmon Tales of the North Pacific and has salmon poems installed at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle. She has been Distinguished Northwest Writer-in-Residence at Seattle University, has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, and currently teaches at Richard Hugo House.

Thor Hanson is a conservation biologist, Switzer Environmental Fellow, and member of the Human Ecosystems Study Group. His most recent book is Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle. His first book, The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda, won the 2008 USA Book News Award for nature writing. Hanson lives with his wife and son on an island off the coast of Washington State.

Bill Dietrich is a Washington state career journalist-turned novelist, who has covered the environment and science for the Seattle Times and other newspapers. He shared a Pulitzer for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for his book on the Northwest timber crisis, The Final Forest. His 10 novels have been translated into nearly 30 languages. He taught environmental journalism at Huxley College of the Environment at Western.

Cost is $100, which includes lunch. Scholarships are available for students.

For more information, please email burked@uw.edu or call (206) 543-5591.

Additional info at:

www.burkemuseum.org/events/browse/environmental_writers_workshop

Join the local chapter of AAJA to celebrate the Lunar New Year this Sat., Jan. 28 at Acquabar in Seattle. This annual event is a fundraiser for AAJA with proceeds benefiting the organization’s scholarship fund. For event details including the menu, or to purchase tickets now, click here. You don’t need to be Asian or a journalist to attend.

Jan. 20, 11:26 a.m.–The Call for Entries in the 2011 SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest is open! See the menu on the right-hand side of the screen to select your options:  Contest Rules & Categories, Contest Instructions, Contest FAQs, Submit Entries Now or Pay for Entries Now.

Jan. 20, 8:47 a.m.– Due to the snowstorm and subsequent power outages in Western Washington, the contest has not yet launched this morning. I am working remotely but anticipate being able to get the Entrant Instructions posted today, so you can begin submitting entries. After that’s done, I will post an update here and do a media blitz to let area journalists know we are ready to rock!

Thanks for your patience.

Dana Neuts
Regional Director

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know you are all anxious to submit your entries to the 2011 SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest, and we are anxious to roll it out. Our new contest vendor Better Newspaper Contest (also called Small Town Newspapers) took our contest live earlier this morning. However, it needs to be tested and linked to our online payment portal.

So please hang tight – we’ll launch and do an official call for entries on Fri., Jan. 20, 2012. Because of our late start, we will extend the entry deadline to Mon., Feb. 20, 2012.

Call for Entries:  Jan. 20, 2012

Deadline for Entries:  Feb. 20, 2012

Questions? Contact Dana Neuts or Ruth Pettis.

Contributed by Ian Marquand, SPJ’s Montana Pro Chapter president

You’re invited!

WHAT:  Helena “Press Club” gathering
WHEN:  Wednesday, Jan. 18, 5-7 p.m.
WHERE:  Riley’s Pub (downtown on 6th St. just off Last Chance Gulch)
ORGANIZED BY:  SPJ Montana & the Montana Newspaper Association

Appetizers provided by SPJ and MNA. No-host bar.

For several years now, as President of the the Montana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, I’ve tried to contribute to Montana journalism in small ways, notably by:

*serving as an officer (and SPJ’s representative) on Board of Directors of the Montana FOI Hotline. (A position I resigned once I became a State employee.)

*writing annual “Sunshine Week” opinion columns and being Montana’s primary contact for national Sunshine Week activities.

*speaking for journalists when necessary, such as when legislators considered limiting access to the House and Senate floors.

*assisting in the annual SPJ Pacific Northwest “Excellence in Journalism” contest, which brings honors to journalists across Montana.

*being an information source for journalists and journalism students.

*organizing the 2009 Pacific Northwest regional journalism conference in Missoula.

*bringing Montana issues to the attention of SPJ at the regional and national levels.

These days, even though I’m working full-time in something other than journalism, I still want to contribute to the profession that sustained me for 30 years.

To that end, MNA Executive Director John Barrows and I invite you to the first SPJ-MNA “Press Club” gathering in Helena on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 18. It’s a chance to:

*have a drink.
*talk with other journalists.
*share thoughts and ideas.

I especially want to know if there’s anything SPJ can do for journalists working in Helena, whether it’s providing professional development opportunities, sponsoring a forum to discuss common issues or just organizing an occasional social evening.

I hope you’ll stop in to Riley’s on the 18th, even if it’s just for a little while.

For more info., please contact Ian Marquand.

Updated January 24, 2011

Thanks to everyone who participated in last year’s Northwest Excellence in Journalism Contest*! We received some great entries and our judges commented on the quality of work submitted. We’re excited about the upcoming contest.

This year we’ll be using the Better Newspaper Contest online contest entry and judging platform. To ensure that we are ready, we’re reducing our entry window to four weeks, beginning January 20, 2012.

For those who are already thinking about next year’s contest, honoring work produced or published in 2011, here is our contest time line:

Jan. 15, 2012 (date change): Entry forms and instructions posted. Entries can be submitted. All entries will be submitted electronically except General Excellence awards.

Feb. 20, 2012:  Entry deadline. All entries must be submitted by 5:00 pm.  (deadline is firm, no exceptions)

Mar. 1, 2012: Entries to be sent electronically to our out-of-state judges.  (All judging will be done online.)

Apr. 1, 2012: Entries to be returned from out-of-state judges.

May 1, 2012: Winners announced via email  (names and organizations only; no places or categories will be given)

May 19, 2012: Western Washington Pro and Oregon/SW Washington Pro Chapters host awards banquets for winners in their chapters. If you are not in either of these chapters, contact your chapter president for information about your awards.

Entry fees will be $20 for SPJ members for all entries but General Excellence. General Excellence entries will be $50 each.

Entry fees will be $25 for non-SPJ members for all entries but General Excellence. General Excellence entries will be $55 each.

Questions? Contact regional director Dana Neuts or contest coordinator Ruth Pettis via email.

*Note:  This contest is open to journalists in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana. The State of Oregon, however, does not participate in the nondaily newspaper portion of the contest. The Oregon/SW Washington Pro Chapter hosts its own contest for those entries.

The Northwest Science Writers are sponsoring an event titled Science by the Dozen. Here’s what you need to know:

“Science by the Dozen”
Thurs., Jan. 12, 2012
6 to 10 p.m.
Institute for Systems Biology

$20 for NSWA members
$25 for nonmembers

Buy tickets online

Come to our annual event, “Science by the Dozen,” on Wednesday, Jan. 11 at the fascinating Institute for Systems Biology in South Lake Union. Short tours of their new building will be available at the beginning of the evening – the event is from 6-10 p.m.

Enjoy the company of authors, journalists, bloggers, writers, photographers, animators and others who care deeply about science. There will be food from Portage Bay Café, wine and beer, and very short introductions of our board of directors.

New members – we will mark your badges so the veterans introduce you around. Veterans, we are counting on you to welcome new folks who are interested in science literacy and improving their craft.

Tickets can be purchased with a credit card through our new “Members’ Zone” or by sending a check to David Ansley, NSWA Treasurer, at 13205 Madison Ave NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.

Sponsored by NATAS Northwest

2012 Northwest Video Workshop
January 27-29, 2012
Seattle, Washington

John Larson
Don’t miss your chance to see and hear John Larson from Dateline NBC. Prior to joining Dateline NBC in 1994 John was a general assignment reporter for KOMO TV.

Tremendous educational opportunity!
This 3-day workshop will give you the tools you need to create your own compelling stories, from spot news and daily turns to in-depth features and investigations. When the workshop is over, you’ll be energized and eager to take your stories to the next level.

Very few seats are left! If you’re thinking about going to this event, sign up now or you’ll miss your chance.

See the Northwest Video Workshop for more details.

The speakers include:

• John Larson – Dateline NBC
• Scott Rensberger – One of the most awarded journalists in the business
• Boyd Huppert – Reporter, KARE-TV, Minneapolis
• Scott Jensen – Managing Editor of Special Projects, KTVA-TV, Anchorage, AK
• John Sharify – Reporter, KING-TV; General Manager of SCCtv and Seattle Community Media; and NATAS Northwest Past President
• Matt Mrozinski – Photojournalist, KING-TV, Seattle
• Jeff Christian – Photojournalist, KING-TV, Seattle

The speaker biographies are on the Faculty page.

Space is limited and will sell out early. Register now to reserve your spot.

Contributed by Victoria Lassen

The deadline for submissions for the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism is Jan. 11, 2012.

The annual award, sponsored by the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York and offered since 1990, seeks significant reporting on wide range of social justice issues, including discrimination based on race, class, gender or sexual or religious orientation; economic injustice; violations of civil liberties and free expression; environmental degradation and brutality to civilians in war. Injustices arising from national, ethnic and religious conflict, globalization and terrorism are also of interest.

The award is open to journalism appearing in profit and non-profit newspapers, magazines, newsletters and online publications.

Last year’s winners were Wayne Barrett for career achievement; Jane Mayer for “Covert Operations” in The New Yorker, Jan Goodwin, “Broken Promises” in the Ladies Home Journal and Village Voice Media staff for “Amongst U.S.”

Other journalists who have received the award over the past 21 years include Donald Barlett and James B Steele, Mike Davis, Les Payne, Bob Herbert, Molly Ivins, Paul Krugman and Juan Gonzalez.

Winners come to Hunter for an award ceremony in late March or early April.

The committee also makes the Grambs Aronson Award for “Cartooning with a Conscience.”

For entry form, fees, and further information visit brie.hunter.cuny.edu/aronson or contact Awards Coordinator Peter Parisi (pparisi.hunter.cuny.edu).

Pacific Lutheran University Students, faculty and administration are debating about the recent suspension of The Mooring Mast website on Fri., Dec. 2 in reaction to obscenities in a sports article headline. Rather than rehash the events leading up to and following the controversial incident, I’ll refer you to other media sources:

The Mooring Mast, home page of PLU’s student newspaper

The Mooring Mast:  PLU Temporarily Takes Down The Mooring Mast’s Website

The News Tribune:  PLU Temporarily Shuts Down Paper’s Site Over Profanity in Story, Headline

SeattlePI.com:  F-bomb in Headline at PLU Sparks Censorship, Apology