Anthony DePalma (author)
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Anthony R. DePalma (June 16, 1952) is an American author, journalist and educator who was a foreign correspondent and reporter for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' for 22 years."CITY OF DUST Illness, Arrogance, and 9/11"
''Kirkus Reviews''
He continues to work on books, magazine articles and other writing projects. He is also an adjunct professor at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...
.


Early life and education

DePalma was born into a large, Italian-American family in the
Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
. His father, Anthony spent his career working on the Hoboken docks. His mother, Phyllis, worked at home raising the family's six children. DePalma graduated from Our Lady of Grace elementary school in 1966, and
Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School was a private, Roman Catholic high school in West New York, in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was located within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. As of the 2005-06 school year, t ...
, where he was elected president of the student council, in 1970. He graduated cum laude from
Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...
in 1975.


Career

DePalma began his career in journalism while still in college, writing for ''
The Jersey Journal ''The Jersey Journal'' is a daily newspaper, published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Journal'' is a sister paper to ''The Star-Ledger'' of Newark, ''The Times'' of Trenton and ...
'', an Advance Publications newspaper in Jersey City, N.J., during two summers, and taking a full-year internship at New Jersey Public Television (later New Jersey Network) from 1973 to 1974. He produced the network's nightly statewide newscast. After graduation he became producer of NJPTV's nightly newscast. In 1978, he joined the Center for Analysis of Public Issues in Princeton, N.J.; he was an editor of the New Jersey Reporter magazine. DePalma joined ''The New York Times'' in 1986, covering housing, regional politics, and higher education, before being assigned to the foreign news staff in 1993 as correspondent in Mexico City. There he covered the debate over
NAFTA The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
, the
Zapatista uprising On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) coordinated a 12-day Zapatista uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico in protest of NAFTA's enactment. The revolt gathered international attention. Background Disease, ensla ...
, the assassination of the ruling party presidential candidate, the 1994-95
peso crisis The Mexican peso crisis was a currency crisis sparked by the Mexican government's sudden devaluation of the peso against the U.S. dollar in December 1994, which became one of the first international financial crises ignited by capital flight. ...
, and the advent of democracy in Mexico. DePalma was named bureau chief in Toronto, Canada, in 1996. In Canada, he covered natural disasters, the
Quebec sovereignty movement The Quebec sovereignty movement (french: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the sovereignty of Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867, including in all matters related to any provision of ...
, political issues and the creation of the Arctic territory of
Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
. In 2000, DePalma was named International Business Correspondent for The Times, covering North, Central and South America. His first book, ''Here: A Biography of the New American Continent'' was published in 2001 In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he worked on The Times' Portraits of Grief series, writing nearly 100 of the profiles of the victims of the attacks that won the
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...
in 2002. In 2005, he was part of the team that produced The Times' Class Matters series. In 2004, he became an environmental reporter for The Times. In 2006, his second book, ''The Man Who Invented Fidel'' was published. DePalma left The Times in 2008 when he was named Writer-in-Residence at Seton Hall University. In 2009, he was awarded the
Maria Moors Cabot Prize The Maria Moors Cabot Prizes are the oldest international awards in the field of journalism. They are presented each fall by the Trustees of Columbia University to journalists in the Western hemisphere who are viewed as having made a significant co ...
for distinguished foreign reporting by Columbia University. DePalma published his third book, ''City of Dust'' in 2010,"2010 in Review: Our favorite books of the year"
''Chicago Sun-Times''
and later worked with CNN's
Dr. Sanjay Gupta Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer. He serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, associate professor of neurosurgery at t ...
on the network documentary Terror in the Dust. His 2012 article "Under Suspicion" was selected as best investigative magazine article by the New Jersey chapter of the
Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...
.


Publications

DePalma is the author of three books. ''Here: A Biography of the New American Continent'', which was published in the United States by PublicAffairs in 2001 and in Canada, where it was a national bestseller, by Harper Collins, Canada, in 2002. His next book, ''The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times'', was published by Public Affairs in 2006 and was translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The film rights to "The Man" were purchased by Moxie Pictures in 2007. In 2010, FT Science, a division of Pearson PLC, published ''City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance and 9/11'', which
The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
named one of the best non-fiction books of 2010. The book was optioned by CNN and became the basis for Terror in the Dust, an hour-long documentary with Dr. Sanjay Gupta that was selected by the Society of Professional Journalists as the "Best Network Documentary" in 2011.


Personal life

DePalma lives in
Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...
Holl, John
"Hoboken in the ’70s: Stayin’ Alive"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', February 25, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2018. "A companion book, ''From Another Time: Hoboken in the 1970s'' ($25), features all the photographs in the exhibition (and quite a few more) and essays by Sada Fretz, a local resident, and Anthony DePalma, a reporter for ''The New York Times'' and a Hoboken native who now lives in Montclair."
with his wife Miriam Rodriguez DePalma, a public school teacher. They have three children: Aahren R. DePalma, Esq. (1981), Laura Felice R. DePalma MBA (1983), and Dr. Andres R. DePalma. (1985) They also have three grandchildren, Penelope Felice DePalma, Luca Rodriguez DePalma and Quinn Maria DePalma.


References


"Fifteen Years on the Bottom"
''New York Times''


External links


DePalma's profile at Columbia University
*http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/d/anthony_depalma/index.html {{DEFAULTSORT:DePalma, Anthony American male journalists 1952 births Living people Writers from Hoboken, New Jersey People from Montclair, New Jersey Seton Hall University alumni The New York Times writers