Rick Bragg

Infobox Writer


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name = Rick Bragg
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birthdate = birth date and age|1959|07|26
birthplace = Piedmont, Alabama, United States
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occupation = Author
Journalist
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Rick Bragg (born July 26, 1959) is an American journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1996 for his work at "The New York Times".

Early life

Bragg was born in Piedmont, Alabama and raised in Jacksonville. He later credited his writing ability to listening to his family tell stories.

Career

Bragg worked at several newspapers before joining the "New York Times" in 1994. He covered murders and unrest in Haiti as a metro reporter, then wrote about the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesboro killings, the Susan Smith trial and more as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He later became the paper's Miami bureau chief just in time for Elian Gonzalez's arrival and the international controversy surrounding the little Cuban boy.

Bragg wrote "I Am A Soldier Too: The Jessica Lynch Story", the authorized biography of American POW Jessica Lynch, in 2003. In the book, Bragg states that Lynch had been raped during her captivity, based on medical records and her pattern of injuries.cite news
url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-11-06-lynch_x.htm
title=Lynch book tells of rape by captors
author=Rick Hampson
publisher=USA Today
accessdate=2007-04-24]

However, Lynch has since stated that she does not recall any sexual assault and was "adamantly opposed to including the rape claim in the book", but that Bragg wore her down and told her that "people need to know that this was what can happen to women soldiers." [Susan Faludi, "The Terror Dream", page 191. Metropolitan Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8050-8692-8]

Accusations of plagiarism

On May 29, 2003, after serving a two-week suspension during an investigation that found Bragg passed off the research of stringers and interns as his own, cite web |date= May 29, 2003; Page C01|url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51506-2003May28?language=printer|title = Rick Bragg Quits At New York Times|format = HTML |publisher = Washington Post| accessdate = 2007-11-24 | last=Howard Kurtz |quote=] Bragg resigned from the "Times"cite web |date= May 29, 2003 Posted: 0433 GMT (12:33 PM HKT)|url = http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/28/times.reporter/index.html|title = Times accepts Pulitzer-winning reporter's resignation|format = HTML |publisher = CNN| accessdate = 2007-11-24 | last= Rose Arce|quote=] . The story which sparked the investigation was a story Bragg wrote about Florida Gulf Coast oystermen. He wrote a narrative first person story of how he experienced oystermen culture:

Yet Bragg only spent one day in Apalachicola and relied completely on the research and interviews of another reporter which he passed off as his own.cite web |date= May 23, 2003, at 5:56 PM ET|url = http://www.slate.com/id/2083539|title = Rick Bragg's "Dateline Toe-Touch"|format = HTML |publisher = pub| accessdate = 2007-11-24 | last=Jack Shafer|quote=]

Later career

He has taught writing in colleges and in newspaper newsrooms and now works as a writing professor at the University of Alabama's journalism program in its College of Communications and Information Sciences.

His latest book, "The Prince of Frogtown", explores his father's life in Bragg's hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama.

Awards

Besides winning a Pulitzer Prize, he has received more than 50 writing awards in 20 years, including the prestigious American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award twice. In 1992, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Works

*cite book | last = Rick Bragg| authorlink = Rick Bragg| title = All Over but the Shoutin| date = March 16, 1999| publisher = Random House Value Publishing | isbn= 0517361620
*cite book | last = Rick Bragg| authorlink = Rick Bragg| title = Wooden Churches: A Celebration| date = November 1, 1999| publisher = Algonquin Books | isbn= 156512233X
*cite book | last = Rick Bragg| authorlink = Rick Bragg| title = Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg| date = August 28, 2001| publisher = Vintage; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition | isbn= 0375725520
*cite book | last = Rick Bragg| authorlink = Rick Bragg| title = Ava's Man| date = August 13, 2002| publisher = Vintage; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition | isbn= 0375724443
*cite book | last = Rick Bragg| authorlink = Rick Bragg| title = I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story.| year = 2003| publisher = New York: Alfred A. Knopf| isbn= 1400042577
*cite book | last = Rick Bragg| authorlink = Rick Bragg| title = The Prince of Frogtown | date = May 6, 2008| publisher = Random House | isbn=978-0-7393-2796-8 (0-7393-2796-8)

See also

*Journalism scandals
*Stephen Glass (reporter)
*Jack Kelley
*Janet Cooke
*Jayson Blair

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/bragg/ Rick Bragg at Randomhouse]
* [http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=77 Rick Bragg Bookbrowse Author Biography]
* [http://www.ccom.ua.edu/journalism/bragg.html Rick Bragg at University of Alabama]

References