Friday, March 7, 2008

Freelance workshop at UCB

UPDATED 3/19: Change in address of event in bold:


Apologies for not refreshing this site. Here's something from former biz pal Pia Sarkar for freelancers:


SAVE THE DATE: Want to break into freelancing, or improve your chances of getting published? Come to AAJA's freelance workshop on Saturday, April 5 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the library of UC-Berkeley's Northgate School of Journalism. We'll discuss everything from developing story ideas to figuring out who best to approach with your pitches. We'll also go over some of the do's and don'ts of the trade. We have a great line-up of panelists so don't miss out!


The workshop is free to all AAJA members and $10 for non-members.


The Panelists:


DAN FOST is a newly minted freelance writer, working for the New York Times, San Francisco magazine, USA Today, Fortune.com and anybody else who will hire him. For nine years, Dan served as a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, covering technology. For four years, he wrote the paper's media column. He considers himself a generalist and has worked various non-tech beats. He is a native of New Jersey, a graduate of Boston University, and the father of an 8-year-old son.


SALLY LEHRMAN is an award-winning reporter and writer on medicine and science policy who has written for some of the top names in national print and broadcast media, including Scientific American, Nature, Health, Salon.com, and the DNA Files, distributed by NPR. Her honors have included the 1995-96 John S. Knight Fellowship; a shared 2002 Peabody award, Peabody/Robert Wood Johnson Award for excellence in health and medical programming, and the Columbia/Du Pont Silver Baton (for the DNA Files). She is the at-large director for the Society of Professional Journalists, where she had served as national diversity chair for 10 years. She is also a USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism Senior Fellow on race. She works in her home office with her assistant Daisy, a Saint Bernard.


MARK ROBINSON is the articles editor for Wired magazine. He covers the impact of technology on everything from television and religion to baldness cures and cream-cheese manufacturing. Prior to joining Wired in 2001, he was an editor for the Industry Standard, overseeing coverage of the media industry. He also spent six years as a daily newspaper reporter, hopping from California to Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Originally from Silicon Valley, Robinson attended Stanford University's master's program in journalism.


RUSS RYMER is an award-winning journalist and author whose career has been split between editing and writing. His freelance work has appeared in many magazines, including The New Yorker, Harpers, Atlantic, Smithsonian, The New York Times Magazine and The New York Times Book Review. His first book, Genie: A Scientific Tragedy, was a finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award. His second book, American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory, was named a New York Times Notable Book. Rymer has served as the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones magazine, executive editor for Portland (Oregon) Monthly, and senior editor for other regional and national magazines. He is currently working on his third book, Out of Pernambuco, to be published in 2008. He is also teaching two science-writing classes at UC-Berkeley.


The Moderator:


ALICE C. CHEN is an award-winning journalist, whose work has appeared in various places, including Newsweek, Chicago Magazine and Chicago Public Radio. Previous to her freelance career, Alice was a staff reporter on the education beat at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Alice also has experience in television and radio news. She earned her B.A. in history from Stanford University and her master's degree in journalism at Northwestern.