{"id":35663,"date":"2023-03-02T12:38:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T17:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=35663"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:56:45","slug":"columnist-john-archibald-is-coms-first-writer-in-residence","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/columnist-john-archibald-is-coms-first-writer-in-residence\/","title":{"rendered":"Columnist John Archibald is COM\u2019s First Writer-in-Residence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Dean Mariette DiChristina (\u201986) asks alumni what from their time at COM has helped them succeed in their careers, she often hears a variation on a single answer: learning how to write well. When the college\u2019s strategic plan<\/a> was approved in 2020, it included an initiative to enhance the already strong writing offerings at COM, and a strategic committee of faculty and staff formed to brainstorm ways to do so. One of their ideas will debut in April when John Archibald, a veteran columnist for AL.com<\/em> and The Birmingham News<\/em>, arrives in Boston as COM\u2019s inaugural writer-in-residence. During his April 3\u20137 residency, Archibald will speak in several of COM\u2019s writing-specific courses, offer individual feedback on student writing in the COM Writing Center<\/a> and deliver a plenary talk to the COM community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the goals is to help students envision what a professional writer looks like,\u201d says Michael Dowding<\/a>, a master lecturer in mass communication, advertising and public relations, and director of the Writer-in-Residence Program. \u201cWriting can<\/em> be a career and it can be a very fruitful and productive and exciting career\u2014just as a pure writer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archibald may just define \u201cpure writer.\u201d A decorated reporter and opinion writer, he was an ideal inaugural pick for the residency, Dowding says. For more than three decades, Archibald has been a trusted journalistic voice of the American South, first as a reporter with The Birmingham News<\/em>, and since 2004 as a syndicated columnist whose writing regularly appears in The News<\/em>, The Huntsville Times<\/em>, The Mobile Press-Register<\/em> in Clarksdale, Ala. and at AL.com<\/em><\/a>. In 2018, Archibald was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary<\/a> \u201cfor lyrical and courageous commentary that is rooted in Alabama but has a national resonance.\u201d His columns frequently effect real-world change, too. In early 2022, Archibald broke open a story<\/a> about predatory traffic ticketing practices in Brookside, Ala., which led to the resignation of the police chief and the resignation or dismissal of half the police force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s done that great journalistic thing of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable\u2014and he\u2019s done that at the highest levels. He\u2019s got a voice and a perspective that we found really refreshing because it was very nonacademic, very nonprofessorial.<\/p>Michael Dowding<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done that great journalistic thing of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable\u2014and he\u2019s done that at the highest levels,\u201d Dowding says. \u201cHe\u2019s got a voice and a perspective that we found really refreshing because it was very nonacademic, very nonprofessorial. It was one that\u2019s much more born of real-world experience that we all think is something our students at COM will really enjoy and relate to and learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NPR named Archibald\u2019s memoir, Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution<\/em> (Knopf, 2021), one of its \u201cBooks We Love\u201d in 2021<\/a>. Archibald also wrote a dark stage play called Pink Clouds<\/em>, which is about \u201cdeath and confusion in Alabama,\u201d he\u2019s said, and which debuted in Birmingham in September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students will have several opportunities to meet and engage with Archibald while he\u2019s on campus: His plenary lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, April 4, at 2 p.m. in the Eichenbaum Colloquium Room in the Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering; he will also speak to students and answer questions in select classes throughout the week; and he will host a two-hour workshop in the COM Writing Center on Wednesday, April 5, from 3\u20135 p.m., where students can walk in with samples of their writing and receive feedback from the Pulitzer winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Writer-in-Residence Program is operated through the college\u2019s Core Curriculum Department and funded by the Tom Schoenenberger Lecture on Writing Fund for a minimum of five years. Dowding says that while Archibald\u2019s writing is journalistic, future writers-in-residence may come from film and television, advertising and public relations. DiChristina is confident Archibald\u2019s visit\u2014and the Writer-in-Residence Program more broadly\u2014will contribute positively to COM\u2019s mission to \u201cbuild understanding through communication education, practice and discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClear, insightful and inspiring writing is a hallmark of building understanding,\u201d she says. \u201cJohn Archibald\u2019s application told a compelling story about his journey to find his own voice in his writing, and his impressive, award-winning body of work shows just how impactful such a voice can be on issues of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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