Monday, July 29, 2013

Interview with IHS Press Author Dan Carpenter

Dan Carpenter, author of the IHS Press book Indiana Out Loud: Dan Carpenter on the Heartland Beat, has been writing for the Indianapolis Star since 1979. In writing for the state's largest newspaper, Carpenter has covered the life and times of some notable Hoosiers, as well as serving as the voice for the disadvantaged. An Indianapolis native, Carpenter answers some questions about his work and career.

What influenced you to go into the journalism profession? 

I fell into writing not long after I learned to read, and fell in love with bylines and readers as a high school newspaper reporter. College in the 1960s, an era of explosive politics and social change, sealed the deal for one who yearned to be in on the action, or more precisely on the edge of it.

What were some of your early jobs with newspapers? 

First was the Greenfield (Ind.) Daily Reporter, where I covered police, fire, city hall and, on nights and weekends, high school sports. I also learned photography there by the sink-or-swim method. Next, 180 degrees removed, was the Milwaukee Courier, an African-American weekly where I practiced by straight and advocacy journalism and learned the priceless lesson that "straight" depends on where one stands.

How do you come up with the ideas for your columns? 

The general flow of news provides lots of ideas for spinoff features, further digging and commentary. Countless contacts accumulated over all these decades keep me supplied with possibilities and in touch with pursuits, people and causes that otherwise would be ignored or not given justice. My reading beyond the news, from history to poetry, often inspires themes and style turns.

Over the years, have you received regular comments from readers, both positive and negative, on your work? 

Many, but rarely a deluge on any single story. Gun control, religion, President Obama, marriage equality and Bob Knight (still) can be counted on to stir response. Rarely is there not a fair distribution of positive and negative.

With all the problems seemingly besetting the profession, would you encourage young people to pursue journalism as a career? 

Absolutely. But be nimble. The technology and market trends that have us multi-tasking and risking accuracy and nuance for speed and distribution will doubtless continue to accelerate and change. The writer who wishes to tell rich, humane, politically courageous, exhaustively researched stories will find his/her New Yorkers, Salons and even room in the daily "press." But he or she will need a closet full of hats to get established as an employee. Freelancers and bloggers likewise will have to be more resourceful than ever if they're to make a living. There's always PR and advertising, and more power to them. But we know what kind of word-and-picture-maker America needs. Desperately.

Any ideas for future writing projects? 

I'm fussing with a second book of poems for breathlessly waiting publishers out there. I also pine to write some intensive magazine-type stories from some of the locales I have observed from afar as a local newsie -- Haiti, Cameroon, the Middle East, etc. I am weighing the notion of teaching for a semester or so in a foreign country and writing about the experience, the place, the people.


7 comments:

Francesco Sinibaldi said...

En el campo.

En la luz
del campo
adorado
siento una
hoja pasar
dulcemente
en el llanto
del sol.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Francesco Sinibaldi said...

Le pas du sonnet.

Le ciel limpide
est comme
la chanson
qui décrit
la lumière
d'un oiseau
solitaire.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Francesco Sinibaldi said...

In a fine time.

In a limpid
perception the
first intuition
appears like
a white shade
near an intense
idea.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Francesco Sinibaldi said...

In the torpor.

Sweet
serenades
and the light
of a luminous
darkness when
a fine bird
is singing.....

Francesco Sinibaldi

Francesco Sinibaldi said...

Desire.

Calling a
pleasure when
the night fades
away and a
fine bird
returns....

Francesco Sinibaldi

Francesco Sinibaldi said...

Soft serenade.

In the dim
light of a
beautiful
singing the
primary care
appears like
a note in
the breath
of a feeling.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Francesco Sinibaldi said...


In a luminous song...

There's the
light of a
fine day in
a luminous
song, there's
a beautiful
sadness and
a tender desire.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Una roca en el arroyo.

Cuando el sol
desciende en
el sendero una
candida luz
ilumina el llanto
de una rima
gozosa.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Un son mystérieux.

Quand la
luminosité du
jour rappelle
la jeunesse le
tendre oiseau
revient en
silence dans
l'aube d'une
poésie.

Francesco Sinibaldi