Keller, Julia

PERSONAL: Born in Huntington, WV. Education: Marshall University, B.A., M.A.; Ohio State, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES: Home—Chicago, IL. Office—Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Journalist. Reporting intern for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson in Washington, DC; worked for Ashland Daily Independent, Ashland, KY; Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, OH, reporter, 1981–98; Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL, reporter, 1998–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Nieman fellow, Harvard University, 1998; Pulitzer Prize, 2005, for feature writing.

SIDELIGHTS: Long-time journalist Julia Keller, who interned with famous syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for her exhaustive account in the Chicago Tribune of a ten-second tornado that ripped through the town of Utica, Illinois, which is southwest of Chicago. According to the Pulitzer Prize Web site, Keller was honored "for her gripping, meticulously reconstructed account." Interestingly, Keller actually did not want to cover the story. "I fought it viciously, I thought it was a terrible idea," Keller told Editor & Publishercontributor Jennifer Saba. "The metro staff did a great job covering the tornado as it happened." Her editors insisted, believing that Keller was the right kind of reporter to get the inside story and further details of the events, including the long-term effects the catastrophe had on the townspeople's psyche. As a result, Keller started visiting Utica on a weekly basis, interviewing those who witnessed the tornado and its aftermath. Keller's three-part report took her seven months to put together as she had to win the trust of the townspeople, who had grown tired of all the media attention, and conduct numerous interviews. The resulting story focuses on the townspeople before, during, and after the twister hit and destroyed a local bar. Keller's story made the front page of the Chicago Tribune in several installments. "It was a beautifully reported and beautifully written piece," Keller's editor Tim Bannon told Saba.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Editor & Publisher, May 1, 2005, "Pulitzers: No Twisting the Truth in Illinois."

ONLINE

Ohio State University Web site, http://www.osu.edu/ (June 22, 2005), "Three Ohio State Alums Take Pulitzer Honors."

Pulitzer Prize Web site, http://www.pulitzer.org/ (June 22, 2005).