Michael Robert Evans bio

Here's the latest bio for Michael Robert Evans:

Contact: Rebecca Grose, SoCal Public Relations
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Getting to Know...
Michael Robert Evans


Michael Robert Evans is an associate professor of journalism at Indiana University. He worked as a magazine and newspaper editor in Western Massachusetts for 13 years, during which time he became increasingly interested in folklore and culture. He became the president of the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society, and during his tenure there, hired a full-time folklorist. He had a Ph.D. in Folklore, and Michael was impressed with his work and his views of the world. Ultimately, he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Folklore at Indiana University. Together with his wife and twin one-year-old sons, Michael moved from Massachusetts to Bloomington, Indiana, to begin this phase of their lives.

For the past 12 years, Michael has taught magazine writing, magazine editing, and other courses at Indiana University. He also teaches a course he created, called “Ethnographic Reporting and Writing,” which helps students use the techniques of ethnography to gather information and write in-depth magazine articles.

One of Michael’s short stories, "Showdown at Pangaea Creek" (a funny, rhyming story about two gunfighters who decide to pursue peace instead of conflict), was included in the book Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope. It received great attention and a reading of it was featured in the video Folktales of Conflict and Peace, and it will be included in an upcoming book of stories about peace titled Peaceabilities, published by The Women's Research Institute at Brigham Young University.

Michael focuses his research efforts on indigenous media movements. He spent a year in the Arctic, working with Inuit videographers, and his book on this subject will be released within the next year. He also spent three months in the Australian Outback, working with Aboriginal radio and video producers. He has spent much of his recent time working on media issues involving North American Native groups.

Born in Germany, while his father was stationed there during the Army, Michael came to the U.S. when he was six months old. He grew up in Indianapolis and Greencastle, Indiana, as well as Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, until he attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

Michael has been an active freelance writer since 1974, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. His first young adult novel, 68 Knots, is being published in Fall 2007 by Tanglewood.

To find out more about Michael Robert Evans, visit: http://michaelrobertevans.blogspot.com.

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