Rick Bragg says he learned to tell stories by listening to the masters, the people of the foothills of the Appalachians. They talked, of the sadness, poverty, cruelty, kindness, hope, hopelessness, faith, anger and joy of their everyday lives, and painted pictures on the very haze of the early evening, when work faded into story-telling. Those stories are the backbone of all three of his memoirs.

Meet Rick Bragg, Tuesday, April 14, KCHS Auditorium

Bragg was born in Alabama, grew up there, and worked at several newspapers before joining The New York Times in 1994. He covered the murder and unrest in Haiti while a metro reporter there, 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 Miami Bureau Chief for the Times just in time for Elian Gonzalez's arrival and the international battle for the little boy.

Bragg received the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1996 while at The New York Times for his elegantly written stories about contemporary America. He has twice won the prestigious American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award, and more than 50 writing awards in his 20-year career. In 1992, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. He has taught writing in colleges and in newspaper news rooms.

Learn more about Rick Bragg

• BookBrowse author biography 
• BookPage interview 
• C-Span’ Booknotes interview 
• The New York Times audio and video special: Charles Frazier and Rick Bragg
• The New York Times review of All Over But the Shoutin 
• The New York Times review of The Prince of Frogtown 
• NPR On Point interview with Rick Bragg 
• Pulitzer Prize biography of Rick Bragg 
• Salon.com Brilliant Careers profile
• University of Alabama faculty biography 
• The Writer Magazine: Rick Bragg on the art of storytelling