Writer
Chris Outcalt, ’06, will give a talk, “Great stories have a soul, and other
things I’ve learned as a journalist” on Tuesday, April 9 at 5 p.m. in MUB
Theater I. The event is free and open to the public.
Outcalt,
an assistant editor at 5280 Magazine in Denver, Colorado, is the Donald Murray
Visiting Journalist for 2013. He writes and edits a variety of pieces for the
magazine and for 5280.com on topics including business, real estate, travel and
the environment. His Nov. 2010 narrative feature investigated the first murder
in three decades in Vail, a posh ski resort town in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
This past year, Outcalt co-wrote a feature-length piece that examined the
controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing.
A native of upstate New York,
Outcalt started his career at the York Weekly and went on the work for the
Portsmouth Herald. He has also reported for weekly and daily newspapers in
Colorado. Outcalt has received multiple awards for his work, including being
named “Rookie of the Year” by the New Hampshire Press Association in 2007.
The Donald Murray Visiting Journalist
Program is named in honor of the late Donald Murray, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
writer who started the UNH journalism program in 1963. Terry Williams ’80,
publisher of the Telegraph of Nashua, led the fundraising drive for
the program, with primary support coming from The McLean Contributionship and
from UNH journalism alumni. The Donald Murray Visiting Journalist Program
brings accomplished alumni journalists to campus each year for week-long
residencies during which they conduct classes, work with students and student
media, and give a public lecture. Recent visiting alums include Pulitzer Prize-winning
Kevin Sullivan '81, Dana Jennings, ’80, of The New York Times and
Chelsea Conaboy,’04, of Boston.com and the Boston Globe.
The program is sponsored by the UNH
Journalism Program, the UNH English Department, the Telegraph of
Nashua, and the McLean Contributionship.