Welcome
I am currently the academic advisor for the University of Arizona School of Journalism. This website, set up in the weeks after the May 2009 closure of the newspaper for which I worked, remains live to give the students I advise an idea of my writing background and examples of my work. At the present time, my wordsmithing is limited to a slow-going novel and infrequent newspaper columns.
I’m an award-winning reporter, columnist and blogger specializing in coverage of education, religion and family issues — although over a career of more than 15 years I’ve reported on just about anything that qualifies as a proper noun. I’ve been published in the Tucson Citizen, the Dallas Morning News, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, National Catholic Reporter and many other venues.
While I excel at commentary, personality profiles and long-form narrative, I also do breaking news and investigations, having honed those skills as a beat reporter at the Tucson Citizen, which closed in May 2009. The words, “Did you hear about…” make my heart race and my hands reflexively grab the nearest writing implement. In fact, I once took notes for an entire story on Dairy Queen napkins because a source called when I was out for dessert.
I’m instinctively drawn to unique human interest stories, such as this piece I wrote on a University of Arizona professor doing ground-breaking research in spite of missing one-quarter of his brain, or this story I did reconstructing the day Tucson police officer Erik Hite was murdered. I work well under stressful and unusual circumstances, as shown by the four months of investigation and reporting on the sale-turned-closure of the Citizen.
My work has been recognized with state and national awards for feature writing, sports reporting, sustained coverage and commentary, and my blog was awarded Best News Blog in May 2010 by the Arizona Press Club. Editors describe me as a reliable, inquisitive team-player dedicated to shoe-leather journalism and sharing donuts with co-workers. Sources describe me as inquisitive, tenacious, intelligent and polite.
Please look around the site for samples of my writing, a detailed listing of where my work has appeared and recommendations from those who’ve worked with me. If you’d like to contact me regarding your writing needs, click on the “Hire me” link below or write to rshorton08 (at) gmail.com. Enjoy!
