NOW: The Series - Contributors

		Dan Budnik Photographer Dan Budnik has been documenting the plight of Navajo and Hopi Indians in the Southwest since 1970. As a photojournalist he became interested in ecology during the mid-60s. He has documented the civil rights movement, including the marches on Washington and Selma to Montgomery. His first foray into charting the plight of American ecology came with an assignment photographing the Hudson — a project he continued for twelve years. Budnik was born in Long Island, N.Y., and studied at the Art Students League in New York City in the late 1950s. Throughout his long career he worked for the premier photojournalistic magazines and photographed celebrities from Hollywood stars to world leaders. Budnik won the American Society of Media Photographers Honor Award in 1999 for his accomplishments.
		Terry Tempest Williams Commentator Terry Tempest Williams grew up within sight of the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah. A fifth-generation Mormon, her ancestors followed Brigham Young, "the American Moses," to the Promised Land for spiritual sovereignty in 1847. She is the author of REFUGE: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY OF FAMILY AND PLACE (Pantheon, 1991), a chronicle of the epic rise of Great Salt Lake and the flooding of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in 1983, alongside her mother's diagnosis with ovarian cancer, believed to have been caused by radioactive fallout from the nuclear tests in the Nevada desert in the 1950's and 60's. Her other books include a collection of essays, AN UNSPOKEN HUNGER (Pantheon, 1994); DESERT QUARTET: AN EROTIC LANDSCAPE (Pantheon, 1995); COYOTE'S CANYON (Gibbs M. Smith, 1989); and PIECES OF WHITE SHELL: A JOURNEY TO NAVAJOLAND (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984). She is also the author of two children's books: THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF SNOW (Sierra Club/Pantheon, 1984); and BETWEEN CATTAILS (Little Brown, 1985). She was recently inducted to the Rachel Carson Honor Roll and has received the National Wildlife Federation's Conservation Award for Special Achievement. Formerly, naturalist-in-residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History, Ms. Williams now lives in Castle Valley, Utah, with her husband Brooke Williams.
		John Ridley NOW commentator John Ridley has enjoyed a successful career as a novelist and a writer, director, and producer for films and television. The film THREE KINGS (1999), starring George Clooney, was based on one of his stories, as was Oliver Stone's U-TURN (1997), a noir thriller which starred Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jennifer Lopez. Mr. Ridley made his directorial debut in 1997 with COLD AROUND THE HEART, a film about jewel thieves which he wrote. He has also worked as a writer and producer for the NBC television series THIRD WATCH. His novels — LOVE IS A RACKET (selected as one of the 10 best books of 1998 by the LOS ANGELES TIMES), STRAY DOGS, and EVERYBODY SMOKES IN HELL — have all earned critical praise and comparisons to the work of Raymond Carver and Dashiell Hammett. Mr. Ridley is also a commentator for NPR. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.
		Jon Alpert Filmmaker Jon Alpert (FROM GROUND ZERO TO GROUND ZERO) has distinguished himself as an award-winning journalist. He has received eleven National Emmy Awards for news and documentary programs. Between 1974 and 1979, Alpert co-produced five one-hour documentaries for public television. The earliest, entitled "Cuba: The People," presented the first American television coverage inside Cuba in ten years. THE NEW YORK TIMES selected Alpert's work as one of the best television productions in the country that year. In 1976, he won one of his three Columbia DuPont Citations and The Christopher Award for "Chinatown: Immigrants in America." His 1977 award-winning piece on Vietnam called "Vietnam: Picking Up The Pieces," marked the first time an American TV crew had filmed in Vietnam since the war. Alpert began contributing to NBC in 1979 with his coverage of the Vietnam-China Border Wars. Over the next dozen years Alpert's investigative reporting, editing, and camera work earned an impressive string of awards and scoops. Altogether, Alpert's work with NBC earned a total of seven National Emmy Awards, five Monitor Awards, the Clio Award, and the Gabriel Award. Some of the Emmy Awards were for camerawork and editing. Jon Alpert is the only Emmy-winning reporter to be honored in the craft categories as well. He has also won a national Emmy in the Sports division, attesting to his legendary, almost bizarre versatility. Alpert still does his own camerawork, and he pioneered the use of the one-person ENG crew. In recent years Alpert has worked with HBO to produce a series of investigative documentaries. In 1995, "High on Crack Street - Lost Lives in Lowell" was hailed as the best anti-drug documentary ever made. It won a Columbia DuPont Award, Alpert's third. In addition to his work as a reporter, Alpert serves as Co-Director of the Downtown Community Television Center, which he founded, along with his wife Keiko Tsuno, in 1971. Every year, this not-for-profit organization trains over 6,000 students free of charge and loans video equipment to more than 400 community organizations.
		Lori Grinker Photographer Lori Grinker started taking pictures of the victims of war after a trip to Israel and the Occupied Territories. Since 1989 she's traveled the world photographing veterans of wars from World War I to Kosovo. These photos, collected in AFTER WAR, have appeared on op-ed pages around the world and are being collected into a book. Grinker studied at Parsons School of Design and early in her career documented the story of Mike Tyson. Her work has won numerous awards and grants. Grinker's first book, THE INVISIBLE THREAD: A PORTRAIT OF JEWISH WOMEN, was published in 1989.
		Vertamae Grosvenor NOW commentator, Vertamae Grosvenor, is many things — poet, actress, culinary anthropologist, and writer. She is also a correspondent on National Public Radio's Cultural Desk. Raised in South Carolina, Grosvenor's first language was Gullah, a combination of West African languages and English. Her ties to the Low Country have exhibited themselves in her autobiographical cookbook, VIBRATION COOKING OR THE TRAVEL NOTES OF A GEECHEE GIRL and her role in Julie Dash's award-winning film about Gullah culture, DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST and for the National Geographic Explorer documentary GULLAH. Grosvenor's memorable documentaries as 1983's "Slave Voices: Things Past Telling" and "Daufuskie: Never Enough Too Soon." "Daufuskie" earned her an Ohio State Award. Among Grosvenor's other awards are a duPont-Columbia Award and an Ohio State Award for "AIDS and Black America: Breaking the Silence," a series which aired on NPR's newsmagazines. In 1992, she was honored with a National Association of Black Journalists Award for an ALL THINGS CONSIDERED segment, "South Africa and the African-American Experience." Grosvenor also received a 1991 Communications Excellence to Black America (CEBA) Award for "Marcus Garvey: 20th Century Pan-Africanist." Currently, Grosvenor is at work on a food folk opera entitled NYAM (Gullah for "to eat"), as well as a cookbook of the same name about Afro-Atlantic cookery. Another work-in-progress is a novel about black expatriates in Europe.
		Harry Shearer NOW commentator, comedian Harry Shearer, is host of the radio program, LE SHOW, which offers an interesting take on current events. He is known to millions for his work on THE SIMPSONS and as the bassist for the a minor British heavy metal band, as well as being one of the brains behind the mockumentary THIS IS SPINAL TAP. Shearer grew up in Los Angeles and has added his genius to our televisions from the days of JACK BENNY SHOW right up through SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about Harry Shearer and more at www.harryshearer.com.
		Shirley Geok-lin Lim Poet Shirley Geok-lLin Lim was born in 1944 in Malacca, Malaysia, a small town on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. When her first book of poetry, CROSSING THE PENINSULA AND OTHER POEMS, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980, she became the first woman and the first Asian to receive the award. Lim is currently professor of English and Chair of Women's Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has twice received the American Book Award, for her memoir AMONG THE WHITE MOON FACES (1996) and for the co-edited anthology THE FORBIDDEN STITCH: AN ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN'S ANTHOLOGY. You can read more of her work on the web site for FOOLING WITH WORDS, a Bill Moyers special.
		John Kaplan The amazing images of "The Face of Cuba" are by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida. His recent work from a trip to Belize can be viewed at INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM.com.
		Jacki Lyden Jacki Lyden is the alternate host and senior correspondent to NPR's WEEKEND ALL THINGS CONSIDERED¨. An award-winning NPR veteran, Lyden has specialized in the kinds of stories that give NPR its signature sound — be it a profile of teenage lifers in Jackson Michigan Penitentiary, or coverage of the opposition movement in Iran. Lyden began her career with NPR in Chicago in 1981, covering stories such as the American farm crisis, the deepening problems in the American rustbelt, and the decline of the steel industry. During the 1990s, beginning with the Gulf War, Lyden frequently reported on the Middle East. From Iran in 1995, she brought a series of reports entitled "Iran at the Crossroads," which presented some of the first-ever voices on tape of dissidents openly critical of the Ayatollah Khomeini and his effect on the country. She also covered President Clinton's trip to Syria in 1994 — the first ever by an American president since 1979. During the Persian Gulf War, while based in Amman, she reported from a number of Middle Eastern cities, including Baghdad, Beirut, Jerusalem, Cairo, and Damascus. Lyden was part of the NPR news team that won the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in 1992 for coverage of the Persian Gulf War. Her other journalism awards include a 1990 National Mental Health Association Media Award for her investigative report "Mental Health Care in Montana," and a National Press Club Award for "Best Consumer Journalism of 1986." Lyden is the author of DAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA (Houghton Mifflin in 1997, by Viking Penguin in paperback in 1998), the critically acclaimed memoir about growing up with a colorful manic-depressive mother whose imaginary travels influenced her daughter's real life travels. It has been optioned for a film by Wind Dancer Films in Los Angeles/New York. She currently divides her time between New York and Washington. New York is her home when she is not on the road on assignment.
		John Stanmeyer The images from "Women of Kabul" were taken in Afghanistan by John Stanmeyer. Mr. Stanmeyer is a co-founding member of the VII (pronounced seven) photo agency and a contract photographer with Time magazine.
		Juan Williams NPR Senior Correspondent Juan Williams reported on the controversy surrounding Cleveland Imam Fawaz Damra in "Radical Muslims." During his twenty-one year career at The Washington Post, Williams served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, and White House reporter. He has won an Emmy award for TV documentary writing and won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including POLITICS — THE NEW BLACK POWER. Articles by Williams have appeared in magazines ranging from Newsweek, Fortune, and The Atlantic Monthly to Ebony, Gentlemen's Quarterly, and The New Republic. Williams is the author of the critically acclaimed biography, THURGOOD MARSHALL — AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY, which was released in paperback in February 2000. He is also the author of the nonfiction bestseller EYES ON THE PRIZE: AMERICA'S CIVIL RIGHTS YEARS, 1954-1965, which was later adapted for PBS broadcast.