Alicia C. Shepard teaches journalism at American University. She was a Times Mirror Visiting Professor at University of Texas at Austin for the 2005-2006 academic year where she taught a class she designed on Watergate and the Press. She spent the last four years interviewing more than 175 people connected to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and sifting through the new archival materials that UT bought from Woodward and Bernstein for $5 million in 2003.
Shepard contributes to Washingtonian and People magazines, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. For nearly a decade, she wrote for American Journalism Review on such things as ethics, the newspaper industry and how journalism works - or doesn't. For that work, the National Press Club awarded her its top media criticism prize three different years. In 2003 she was a Foster Distinguished Writer at Penn State. From 1982 to 1987, she was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News in California. She is co-author of Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 (2002), about how journalists covered 9/11 and the role they played as modern-day keepers of calm on America's most terrifying day.
Shepard has traveled extensively in the U.S. and abroad. In 2002, she bicycled 517 miles from Amsterdam to Paris. In 1987, Shepard, her husband and one-year-old son, Cutter, set sail on their 32-foot sailboat, ..Yankee Lady,.. for the South Pacific. They spent three years cruising in the islands and she wrote about their adventures. They sailed to Japan and stayed for two more years writing, editing, teaching English and learning Japanese.
Shepard graduated with honors in English in 1978 from The George Washington University and received a masters in journalism from the University of Maryland in 2002.
'City Smells' is a new literary project set up by the Edit Red Writing Community.
We are running three writing competitions, Flash Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry, all with the theme 'City Smells. The winners of each of these competitions will win $100. But more than this, we will take the best work from each competition and compile a paperback 'City Smells' anthology. The writers who make it into the 'City Smells' anthology will each receive free copies of the book and be paid a royalty in book sales.
To submit to these competition and stand a chance of being published in the 'City Smells' book you must be a member of Edit Red, as the submission process is automated. Joining Edit Red and entering these competitions is 100% free. If you make it into the book, we will pay royalties based on book sales.
Edit Red has existed for many years and was created and is still managed today by non-fiction author Alan Emmins, creative writing teacher Chris Lee Ramsden and literary reviewer Sean Merrigan.
If you are not already a member, we hope you will join and take part in this great literary event. Sign up here for free!
