Safir Ahmed

Safir Ahmed is a book editor and editorial consultant.

He is the former Editor of AlterNet. He has been a journalist for more than 20 years, both in the mainstream daily press and the alternative press. He worked at the Pulitzer family-owned St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the daily newspaper in St. Louis, for eight years during the 1980s as a reporter covering various beats -- including the environment, education, state politics and poverty. While there, he also served briefly as assistant Metro Editor. He was editor at The Riverfront Times, the alternative newsweekly in St. Louis, for 11 years.

During the 1990s, he served as Editorial Chair on the board of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, a trade association of 120 newsweeklies, and as vice-president of the Independent Media Institute. In 2003-2004, he worked as Communications Director for the U.S. Senate campaign of Missouri State Treasurer Nancy Farmer. He currently is an editor of books on social and political issues. Among the books he edited in recent years are: "Crashing The Gate: Netroots, Grasroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics" by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga; "How Would a Patriot Act?" by Glenn Greenwald; "Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision" by George Lakoff; "Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No To Iraq," by Peter Laufer; "Anatomy of Deceit: How The Bush Administration Used The Media To Sell The Iraq War and Out A Spy" by Marcy Wheeler; "America, Fascism and God: Sermons From A Heretical Preacher," by Davidson Loehr; "The Challenge To Power: Money, Investing and Democracy" by John Harrington; and "Taking On The System: Rules for Radical Change in the Digital Era" by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.

Besides editing books, Ahmed is an editorial consultant and works with not-for-profit organizations and web sites that focus on news and current affairs. He has also consulted with California State University, Fresno, where he ran a faculty writing group for the School of Social Science for two years.

A native of India, Ahmed moved to the United States in 1974. He lives in San Francisco and has a 17-year-old daughter.