Rick Bragg Biography

Rick Bragg is an American journalist. He is also a writer known for non-fiction books, especially those about his family in Alabama. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 recognizing his work at The New York Times.

Bragg has also taught writing in colleges and in newspaper newsrooms. He now works as a writing professor at the University of Alabama’s journalism program in its College of Communication and Information Sciences and writes a column for Southern Living. His 2008 book, The Prince of Frogtown, explores his father’s life in Bragg’s hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama.

Rick Bragg Age

Rick was born on 26 July 1959 in Piedmont, Alabama, United States. He is 59 years old as of 2018.

Rick Bragg Family

Bragg was born in Alabama and grew up in Jacksonville. He was raised by his mother. His father was an alcoholic and was almost never home. His relatives were also very involved in his young life and greatly influenced his personal and emotional development. He credited his ability to write to listening to his family tell stories.

Rick Bragg Spouse

Bragg was married to Lisa Creel. He divorced Lisa Creel in the early 1980s. In May 2005, Bragg married Diane Wells. His relationship with Wells’s young son provides the counterpoint to chapters on Bragg’s on father in The Prince of Frogtown.

Rick Bragg Career

In 1994, Rick joining the New York Times. He had previously worked at several newspapers. Bragg covered murders and unrest in Haiti as a metro reporter. He also wrote about the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesboro, Arkansas, killings, and the Susan Smith trial as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He later became the paper’s Miami bureau chief prior to Elián González’s arrival and the international controversy surrounding the Cuban boy. Bragg won the Pulitzer Prize for his work.

He has also written eight books: All Over But the Shoutin, Ava’s Man, Prince of Frogtown, I Am a Soldier Too:  Jessica Lynch Story.  Jessica Lynch Story was an authorized biography of American. He has also written POW Jessica Lynch,  Most They Ever Had, Jerry Lee Lewis.  His Own Story, a biography of the rock and roll legend, My Southern Journey, and  Best Cook in the World: Tales From My Momma’s Table”.

Bragg’s book All Over But the Shouting tells the story of his childhood in Alabama, his rise to becoming a journalist, his personal struggles and the stories of the people he cares about. The book pays special attention to his struggles with his abusive alcoholic father and the story of his mother who raised Bragg and his two brothers on her own.

Rick Bragg Net Worth

His net worth is estimated to be from $100K-1M.

Rick Bragg Controversy

On May 28, 2003, Bragg resigned from the New York Times. He resigned after being given a two-week suspension for writing a story that was reported by an uncredited stringer. Bragg had relied on the reporting of volunteer intern J. Wes Yoder. The article ran with a dateline of Apalachicola, Florida, and began:

“The anchor is made from the crankshaft of a junked car, the hull is stained with bottom muck, but the big Johnson outboard motor is brand new. Chugging softly, it pushes the narrow oyster boat over Apalachicola Bay, gently intruding on the white egrets that slip like paper airplanes just overhead, and the jumping mullet that belly-flop with a sharp clap into steel-gray water.”

The Washington Post reported that “Bragg freely admitted that he sent his intern, Yoder, who was compensated only with lunch and rent money, on the boat.” A review by the Times found that while Bragg “indeed visited Apalachicola briefly and wrote the article, the interviewing and reporting on the scene were done by a freelance journalist, J. Wes Yoder. The article should have carried Mr. Yoder’s byline with Mr. Bragg’s.”

Bragg’s defense that it is common for Times correspondents to slip in and out of cities to “get the dateline” while relying on the work of stringers, researchers, interns and clerks was contested by Times reporters, and sparked “more passionate disagreement than the clear-cut fraud and plagiarism committed by fellow reporter Jayson Blair.”

Rick Bragg Awards

Bragg won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. This was for Feature Writing, citing “his elegantly written stories about contemporary America”. He has also received more than 50 writing awards in 20 years, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award twice. Rick was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1992.