LoginMay 2021 Notable Author: William A. Englund
“Sometimes, I guess, you just go where your nose leads you.” – Will Englund
William A. Englund (born March 30, 1953) is a Pulitzer prize-winning, American journalist, and author. He graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in English and a M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Says Englund, “I studied English literature as a Harvard undergraduate, because I figured novels would be more interesting than textbooks, yet it was the master’s program at Columbia University’s journalism school that actually taught me something about writing.”
Englund spent over 4 decades in the news business. His first experience in journalism was with the The Record, in Bergen County, New Jersey. Then, in 1977, he joined the Baltimore Sun and remained there till 2008 when he became a White House correspondent for the National Journal. Two years latter he joined the Washington Post.
While at The Baltimore Sun, Englund was an editorial writer and an associate editor. His taste for foreign foreign assignments came in 1988 when he and his wife, Kathy Lally, worked for the Glasgow Herald as part of a Fulbright scholarship to the United Kingdom.
Englund’s first gained noteriety in 1998 with the award of a pulitzer prize for investigative reporting for his series, with Gary Cohn, on the Shipbreaking Industry. Shipbreaking is when ships are scrapped (broken apart) for their steel. The series focused on the health and safety hazards that salvage workers faced due to lack of training. That same year he received the George Polk award and an Overseas Press Club prize for the same work.
Total, Englund spent twelve years assigned to Russia as a foreign correspondent. It was during one assignment that Englund saw a plaque on the wall of a church in St. Petersburg commemorating parishioners who had died during the First World War. He was struck by the fact that thought 1.7 million Russian Soldiers were killed in the WWI, yet this was the only public memorial he could remember seeing in Russia. Their memory had been obliterated. Englund credits that plaque as the catalyst for writing, March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution.
In December 2019, Englund was named as The Washington Post's new energy reporter for Business. Englund still is married to Kathy Laly, their two daughters are grown and flown, and he still lives in Baltimore and commutes every day to the Washington Post to work the foreign desk.
Genre: investigative journalism
Reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report.
Sample Reading List: “Shipbreakers" a series of stories on the shipbreaking industry, "March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution"
Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words
MWA invites you to have fun being an investigative journalist like William. With just 100 words, pick any serious crime, political corruption, or corporate wrong and write an investigative report. Remember to answer who, what, where, when, and why.
Submit your 100 words by the 25th of the month and receive an MWA Fun With Words Submission Certificate.
Nayano Taylor-Neumann
Jun. 10, 2021The flies entirely cover your face and body and crawl up your nose unless you actually hit them. There are no trees for miles around, and temperatures regularly reach 110 degrees. The nearest town is hundreds of miles away. Its 2,600 residents live in dugouts and go underground to church and to have a night out. Visitors stay in underground hotels. It’s cool underground, with no flies. There’s no other place in the world like Coober Pedy, South Australia, where miners dig the world’s best opal. Imagine the bragging rights from visiting the only underground town in the world
Steve Baker - Charles County
Jun. 10, 2021DATELINE: "Crime-GATE.” It was a minor crime. Burglary. However, all scandals moving forward would be affected by the last part of this particular crime scene's name. In 1828, construction began on the C&O Canal. This Maryland waterway's downstream connection to the tidal Potomac River was called: "the watergate.” Decades later, the abandoned "watergate" lent its name to a nearby hotel. The strange bedfellows of "scandal" and "lingo" have been forever united by a 19th Century commercial venture...and its "gate.” In 1971, Congress passed legislation restoring the C&O Canal as a National Historic Park. That bill was approved by Richard Milhous Nixon
Franklin Silberzahn - Carroll County
Jun. 10, 2021The Baltimore Tribune has uncovered poor management practices in the city’s Department of Transportation that likely resulted in last week’s failure of the city’s traffic control system causing widespread chaos, including the death of 17 persons. The software that manages the city’s 1300 traffic lights was recently purchased from OPTIMAP and had not been thoroughly vetted for a city of this size. Department Director Arnold Zimmerman stands behind the OPTIMAP software and blamed the failure on a cyber-attack, although there were no active cyber-threats against the city and no group has claimed credit. A spokesman for OPTIMAP declined to comment.
Lawrence McGuire - Charles County
Jun. 10, 2021When Monsignor Jude Ligner, pastor of Saint Brigid's Catholic Church in rustic Perdutown, asked for money yet again, suspicious parishioners demanded an audit. But Bishop Aleister Paloma, who heads the Diocese of Faulwick, denied their request. Consequently, The Free State Informer conducted a year-long investigation into the congregation's claims. Diocesan insiders leaked documents which showed clear discrepancies between what pastors reported in their annual parish financial statements and available funds. One Saint Brigid parishioner, who wished to remain anonymous, fearing his family would be denied the sacraments, said, "Can't trust them with our cash, why trust them with our souls?"
Jon Ketzner - Cumberland
Jun. 10, 2021Death in the Afternoon Larry Brady was playing golf on the afternoon his wife Cynthia was murdered, execution style, in her kitchen while her two children napped upstairs. His foursome included a U.S. Congressman, the Clayton County D.A. and a bank president. The gold standard of alibis. While Brady was, ostensibly, the President of his late father-in-law's financial services firm, Cynthis was the sole owner. Her ownership passed to Brady at her death. A few weeks after Cynthia's funeral, Brady married his 23 year-old secretary. No one was ever charged in Cynthia's murder; though the swells of Clayton County had little doubt about who was behind her killing. Following a very slapdash investigation by the Clayton County Sheriff, the case went cold and has stayed cold for ten years. Until now..
Nathan Jarelle - PG County
Jun. 10, 2021Facts of the Case: At approximately 0408hrs, Sunday, September 6, 2020, authorities responded to 2727 Douglas Boulevard of Ellis, Maryland for a welfare check. Upon arrival, officers discovered the mutilated remains of an unidentified, elderly adult woman inside the trash at the listed address. Arriving paramedics confirmed the victim was deceased. Medical Examiner Florence (ID:442050) arrived a short time thereafter and ordered the victim’s body to be transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, Maryland for a full evaluation.
Leslie Dickey - Calvert County
Jun. 10, 2021Dis-information? More like mis-information meant to mislead virologists regarding the spread of COVID-19. Bats were never a vector for viral transmission to humans. Theories implicating the Center for Disease Control and Doctor Fauci as funders for the Wuhan laboratory were smokescreens. Rumors of an accidental release deflected attention from the true source of the pandemic. The spread was financed by a global corporation working with foreign officials to enhance profits. Entire nations went on lockdown and relied on this corporation to supply them, at inflated prices, with their daily needs. COVID, another benefit from your Prime subscription. More to follow.