contributors
Reed Karaim (Coming home, pp. 10-19) believes his greatest influence on North Dakota may have come in 12th grade, during a Future Business Leaders of America convention, when he started a measles epidemic that spread to all corners of the state. When not spreading infectious diseases, he spent his childhood days in Mayville reading every book he could in the state university's library, where he was lucky enough to have a mother who was also the assistant librarian. His writing career began at the NDSU Spectrum and proceeded through stops at the Cass County Reporter in Casselton, The North Dakota Farmers Union paper, The Grand Forks Herald, and on to Knight-Ridder Newspaper's Washington Bureau. He worked eight years there, covering a variety of beats, but ending with the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.
He quit to pursue a long-time dream of writing fiction. His novel, "If Men Were Angels," published by W. W. Norton, was a 1999 summer selection in the Barnes and Noble Discover Great Young Writers Series. His non-fiction has appeared in The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Fortune, USA WEEKEND, Civilization and many other publications. He has won awards for his journalism, fiction and poetry.
He lives with his wife, the author Aurelie Sheehan, and their daughter, Alexandra, in Tucson, Arizona. He regrets to say he never, in any sense of the notion, became a Business Leader of America.
Rebecca Kilzer (Lessons Learned, pp. 46-47) grew up on a farm near Mott, N.D., with two sisters, three brothers, a herd of cows and a flock of chickens. She came to NDSU in 2000 and has been studying mass communications ever since. An adventurer at heart, she looks forward to graduating in May 2004 and working in public relations at a firm or large corporation near the West Coast. But until then, she will spend her time managing the NDSU Memorial Union Gallery, planning a wedding and, of course, enjoying her last year of college life.
Jerry Richardson, (Hot and cold wars, pp. 42-45) former director of the North Dakota State University communications office, graciously contributes time out of his retirement to write for the magazine. His work has appeared in several issues.
These days, Leo Kim (photograph, p. 26) has a diverse fan base, thanks to his landscape photographs of North Dakota, which have toured the Upper Midwest in art exhibitions and are captured in a beautiful book. That the exhibition and book are so well received is a nice case of karmic payoff, perhaps, since Kim dropped his commercial enterprise and self-funded the travel and printing costs for the book. He's back to work in a studio these days, welcome news for his many clients. Kim is a recipient of the Gold Award for excellence in corporate photography from Photo/Design, New York, and numerous other accolades, including a Gold Award from the national Community Relations Report and the Best of Show for the photography and design of the North Dakota Arts and Humanities annual report. He has been featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the International Photo District News as well as several other publications. He may be reached at www.leokim.com.
Lots of people like Julie Babler's work. As art director for NDSU magazine, she has gained fans among readers, judges and other magazine editors. Specifically, her work was recognized by the industry giant, Communication Arts, March/April 2003. And, for a one-two punch, her work on an annual report will appear in an upcoming issue of Print, another big name in the design world.
