Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss

2011 Dart Center Academic Fellow Doug Underwood, a longtime investigative reporter and professor at the University of Washington, recently published Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss. Using the personal lives and writings of 150 journalists and literary giants including Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote and Kurt Vonnegut, Underwood explores three centuries of journalism and literature that is influenced by trauma.

Though journalists “seldom write openly or directly about the influence of stress and trauma in their own lives,” Underwood writes, he decided to put some pieces together himself. In the book, he weaves together writings, critical studies and biographical texts to illustrate how personal traumas experienced by these writers influenced their lives and careers.

Seattle writer Robin Lindley sat down with Underwood to discuss Chronicling Trauma. Click here for the full interview.