Hub Writing Peru Confess Weblog About Sitemap Search Contact Stringer: A Definition A writer who is not a full-time employee, but is paid by the job. The term comes from the days when a writer would get paid by the column inch and would measure his or her contribution by holding a string along the story to measure its length. Elevation Map of Peru Confessions of a Stringer This is an experimental section. These articles write special features about Peru that do not seem to fit neatly into Peruvian Graffiti. It's mainly about practicing journalism as a freelance correspondent in a country like Peru. I also want to write some of those stories that I never got around to writing. I also want to rescue those fleeting moments when I thought that I understood what the hell was going on in the country and in myself. Part reminiscence, part brainstorming, part stream-of-consciousness. You can also check the Writing section for comments about the publications that I wrote for. Why I work at the Organization of American States. A Life Tale: how I got here from there and why it took so long. Foreigners in a Strange Land: Lori Berenson and I shared a predicament The Sins of Bonsai Journalism: hop off a plane and try to write 2000 words in a few days without sounding trite Vision at Dawn: Zen and the Altiplano My Romance with Computers: in 1982 I joined the revolution Peruvian Times SA: how I broke into journalism Foreign Press Association of Peru: Support Group for Journalists A Tribute to Katharin Graham, publisher of the Washington Post Chavez-Carrasco Family Gallery: glimpses of my wife's family in Peru For more recent information about the situation of foreign journalism in Peru, check out the Foreign Press Association of Peru (APEP). It has useful links, a directory of working foreign journalists in Peru and samples of members' stories. I was an APEP member for eight years and served on their board for five years. It is a unique and valuable institution. Country Notes Nick Asheshov was my boss and journalistic mentor for my first adventures in journalism at the Peruvian Times. As a reporter who did lots of freelancing, he qualifies as an honorary member of this section. He now owns a hotel in the Urubamba valley near Cusco and living as a country squire, as was always his ambition. The Urubamba Paradoxx: Things are not meant to work Witch's Broom and Chocolate: A fungus hits at Cusco's cocoa crop The Honor Roll Listed below are journalists and other low-lifes who spent some time at the Peruvian Times S.A. in Lima, Peru. There are other names that belong on this list, but my memory fails me. Please send me info if you feel that you belong on this list. Philip Bennett: Formerly, managing editor and foreign news editor of the Washington Post, now teaching at Duke University Mick Andersen: Writer and Latin American specialist working in Washington, DC, currently at the Inter-American Defense College Larry Wippman: Air traffic specialist, now based in Tucson, Arizona. He learned how to fly in Lima. Doreen Gillespie: the backbone of Peruvian Times/Andean Report/Lima Times, now currently in a well-deserved semi-retirement, but still writing for specialized publications Patty Moore: Currently working for the IUCN in Thailand as an environmental lawyer. Anne Arrarte: Back in Peru, raising her brood. She gave up her job at the Miami Herald Jonathan Cavanaugh: translator and interpreter at the Organization of American States. Jonathan was a fixture in Peru for two decades, founding The Peru Report. He's still actively involved in Peru, especially since he's married to a Peruvian. Michael Reed: last I heard, he was an editor for The Economist, London, after having worked as the Latin American correspondent for The Guardian. John Crabtree: head of Andean research programs at England's Oxford University Dominic Hodgkin: now teaching at Brandeis University in Boston and doing research on the US health care system. John Lee Anderson: gone on to bigger and better things at The New Yorker. He wrote a critically acclaimed book about the Che, among other books. Currently living in Spain. Corine Schmidt: A former U.S. diplomat, she took over most of my strings in 1990. She's now living in Virginia. Christine McDerment is now editing a regional weekly in England, after an extensive detour that took her to Chile and then Portugal. Jane Baird: did a lot of free-lance stuff for Peruvian Times and other publications abroad. Antonia Cavanagh: Jonathan's sister Catherine Mulder: a Peruvian of Swiss stock Loretta McLaughlan: a Scotswoman who let me take over the Times of London string. Martin Barrow: He's been with the Times of London for 12-plus years. Currently on the deputy business editor, soon to move to the foreign desk. He served as Nick Asheshov's assistant for a while. Postdata Twenty years after learning how to pitch a story to an editor, I have come across the Latin American Journalism Handbook, an online resource put together by Ron Mader. It recently transformed into Latin America Media Project (LAMP). Ron also does an excellent job of covering eco-tourism, environmental issues, Latin American Internet and book reviews, plus other matters, so there's lots of information to mine. Check out his Peru page . Why didn't something like this exist when I was chewing up pencils, drinking too much coffee and trying to write a lede? Who cares that the Internet (ARPANET, at the time) was just for the Department of Defense and a few research universities. That would have been a mere technicality. For any colleagues from Latin America who might have checked out this page, Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships provide an "on-the-job training program for print journalists from developing and transitional countries with an emerging free press." More resources for free lancers. Correspondent.com g c i 275 | Writing | Peru | Confess | Weblog | Site Map | Contact WWW www.gci275.com Updated on Sunday, 19-Dec-2010 19:07:15 PST http://www.gci275.com/lives/index.shtml