About Me
I’m an award-winning international journalist who has worked in Chicago, New York, Budapest, and Moscow.
I bicycled cross country 4 times and hitchhiked across America, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. I’ve ridden freight trains and rounded up cattle out West, studied Buddhism in the Himalayas, and won a heavyweight boxing championship in Ireland.
I toured almost 100 countries, swam the headwaters of the Nile, fought off a hippo attack, and toured ecological disaster areas in the Amazon.
I worked with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Budapest Sun, Budapest Business Journal, and the Moscow Times.
I have an M.S.J. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism; a B.A. from Marquette University; a fellowship at the University of Maryland, College Park; a Backpack Storyteller certificate from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies; and spent my junior year in college at the University College Cork, Ireland.
I’m a full-time writer living in the Chicago area to be near my daughter Grace. I promised her that I’ll stay closer to home for a while.
If you enjoyed American Oz, please leave a review. It is vital to the book being seen and read. And the author will be grateful, big time!
I recently (Feb. to May, 2021) finished bicycling 2,500 miles along Route 66 collecting Covid stories forThe Story Cycle: Bicycling Route 66 Chicago to L.A. in Covid’s Deadliest Time. More than 100 videos along “America’s Main Street” show heartbreaking, surprising, and revealing ways Americans are responding to a pandemic’s threat to their lives.
The University of Florida’s Samuel Proctor Oral History Program is archiving all the more than 100 videos and posting them on their site too. The Story Cycle is pandemic survival – American style.
I’m always seeking the next project, so if you think of an idea that jibes with my first two books, please email me at Mike@MichaelSeanComerford.com
