Reporters and the Pen: Arizona Journalists Who Became Authors

The Arizona chapter of PEN America is excited to partner with the Society of Professional Journalists to co-host a panel of Arizona-based journalists who became authors.

Join us to learn how these local journalists moved to long-form writing, shifted their creative processes, and took the path to publication. The panelists will discuss the difference between the two writing forms and read excerpts from their books. How were they inspired to write their books, and how did their processes draw upon, or differ, from standard journalism techniques?

Jeremy Duda is a reporter for Axios Phoenix. He's a native of Phoenix, a University of Arizona graduate, and a longtime Arizona politics reporter. Before joining Axios in 2022, he worked for the Arizona Mirror, Arizona Capitol Times, the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, and the Hobbs News-Sun of Hobbs, New Mexico. He's also the author of If This Be Treason: The American Rogues and Rebels Who Walked the Line Between Dissent and Betrayal.

Christina Estes received the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest. Her novel Off the Air, inspired by Christina's career, features a TV reporter investigating the suspicious death of a controversial radio talk show host. Christina currently works as a journalist for the NPR member station in Phoenix. Her reporting has appeared nationally on NPR and CBS and in the Arizona Republic, Arizona Business Gazette, and Phoenix Business Journal.

Terry Greene Sterling is a journalist, author, and teacher. She grew up on an Arizona cattle ranch and often visited her grandmother, uncles, aunts, and cousins in Sonora. Because her family was rooted in two cultures, she has long written about the people, policies, and landscapes of the borderlands. A conversational Spanish speaker, she is a three-time Arizona Journalist of the Year and the winner of over fifty-eight international, national, and regional writing and reporting honors. She’s the co-author of Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance, published by the University of California Press in April 2021, and the author of Illegal, Life, and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone, published by Globe Pequot Press in 2010.

Richard Ruelas is an Arizona native who has worked at The Arizona Republic (and its sister paper, The Phoenix Gazette) since 1994. He has covered all manner of stories over the years. Besides his investigative role, he also keeps tabs on the Arizona wine industry. He has co-authored two books about the legendary Phoenix children's program, "The Wallace and Ladmo Show."

Maren Showkeir has 20+ years of experience organizing, structuring, and managing newspaper content, including daily breaking coverage, award-winning narrative journalism, and investigative projects. She is a freelance writer/editor focused on helping people develop, clarify, and communicate content and connect with their identified audience. Specializing in helping writers maintain their voice while delivering their key messages concisely, crisply, and compellingly. She is also an adjunct professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore, 4014 North Goldwater Boulevard, Scottsdale, United States