Read never imagined that he would be the recipient of two Pulitzer prizes, much less in such a brief span of time. "It's a bit like getting struck by lightning twice," he said. "There's a certain amount of luck and timing in it. But it comes down to hard work, great editing and a great education."
The first prize was for explanatory writing in 1999, coming as the result of a four-part series about the Asian financial crisis. He knew that few would be engrossed by a formal treatise on Asian economics and resolved to make his piece a bit more accessible to the lay-person. The result was a life story of a container of French fries from its origin on a Washington farm to its final destination in a McDonald's in Singapore, then continuing to Jakarta, Indonesia, the fries' original destination, where he covered the riots leading to President Suharto's resignation. His intention was use the french fries to explore the Asian economic crisis and how it affected the U.S. market.
"The joy of the story was showing how many different cultures-from the members of a Germanic sect who grew the spuds, to the South Pacific sailors who brought them to Asia-combined to make what is, after all, the ultimate in standardized global products: the McDonald's French fry."
The second Pulitzer was awarded to him this year, shared with three other members of an investigative team. The piece was a six-part series revealing the "corruption, bungling and abusive behavior" of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). It began when he broke some local stories about harsh INS treatment of foreigners at Portland International Airport which caused the local director of the INS to resign. Foreign businessmen were sent home on return flights or even jailed overnight on visa technicalities. Read also highlighted individual instances of abuse.
"A German woman-married to an American, but here on the wrong visa-was strip-searched, jailed, separated from her breast-feeding daughter and deported," said Read. This led to the launch of a national investigation, unveiling that such conduct was typical.
Because of Read's investigative reporting, The Oregonian was awarded the gold-medal Pulitzer for public service, often held as the most prestigious Pulitzer. He attributes the INS Pulitzer to "our sources, who summoned a great deal of courage to tell us what they had suffered. If the prize brings them justice and leads to reforms, that is the best outcome."
"Winning a Pulitzer is a huge honor," he explained. "But as Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman has said, 'You know how your obituary will begin.' I also found out that French fries and champagne go well together."
Going, going, Oregon
Read, like most journalists, is a risk-taker who thrives on ambiguity. After graduation, Read set out for Portland, Ore., on a cross-country trip in his Toyota pickup truck. He had never been there before, but decided it was a promising prospect. After applying to 100 newspapers in the middle of a recession, he found his journalistic calling at The Oregonian.
Now, 20 years later, he is still there, advancing from his "junior scoop" coverage of fires, car accidents and homicide to his current position as senior writer for international affairs. The Oregonian is Portland's daily newspaper and has the largest circulation in the Pacific Northwest. While remaining at the same publication (although his tenure was a bit interrupted), Read has been anything but stationary. He founded a weekly science section and then began to develop a more probing slant when he worked on an investigative team that covered Portland's city hall.
Investigations were nothing new to Read. Immediately after graduation, he spent a year working on a commission in Boston that exposed corruption in Massachusetts public construction and politics and recommended reforms. The commission was headed by then-Amherst President John Williard.
Then an itch of another kind beset Read; the desire to cover international affairs-to be a global journalist. This desire was the result of a unique childhood. Read was born in Scotland, to a Scottish father and an American mother. His global identity and dual U.S. and British citizenships have always extended his calling to look more broadly than simply within the U.S.
After marrying Kim Kunkle in 1986 he decided to literally broaden his horizons and moved to Bangkok, Thailand, with the aid of a Henry Luce Foundation fellowship. While there, he worked at The Nation, an English-language newspaper. Afterwards, the couple fulfilled one of his wife's prime dreams and lived in Tokyo, where Read freelanced.
As freelancing is a liberating but precarious position, Read decided to return to The Oregonian, but in a new transglobal sense. To do so, he opened a new bureau with one employee: himself. For five years Read reported all over the Far East; from locations in Russia, China, Vietnam, Australia, Bangladesh and India. During that time, he primarily covered Asia's meteoric economic boom in a weekly column that featured people and trends across Asia.
He also reported on other, more compelling situations; he was one of only a handful of American journalists to enter the "impregnable fortress" of North Korea. "It was like visiting another planet," he explained. "It was chilling to see such a tightly-controlled society. Our opportunities were limited, as we could only see the 'truth' as the government presented it. We had to read between the lines." He recalled being told that there was freedom of religion but when he asked a priest, "Who's more important, Kim Il-Sung [former dictator of North Korea] or God?" The priest replied, "Who's God?"
In addition to this eye-opening experience, he rode the Trans-Siberian train for six days from Khabarovsk to Moscow to cover the opening of Russia's Far East. With his wife he traveled twice around the world, reporting on such watershed events as the economic opening of Vietnam, the genocidal war in Cambodia and the gradual demise of Japan's high-flying economy. After the couple moved back to Portland, he continued to report on international topics; roaming Chiapas, Mexico to cover the guerrilla rebellions; Cuba during the offshore shooting-down of U.S. planes; Peru for President Fujimori's term; even Hong Kong for the handover of the British colony back to China in 1999. Read has reported in 40 countries and in 1996 he took a bit of a break and spent a year at Harvard as a Nieman fellow, "rediscovering the joys of term papers."
Have pen, will travel
From academia to international media representation, Read has indeed traversed a lot of ground-literally and physically. The first half of his life was not nearly so hectic, or at least so itinerant. After his father was killed while mountain-climbing when Read was only five-years-old, he moved with his mother and sister to Cambridge, Mass. He spent his formative years there, attending Concord Academy, a high school outside Boston, which was just becoming co-ed at the time. He applied under early decision to Amherst, largely because one of his favorite elementary school teachers was an alumnus. The early decision deadline came just before Amherst decided to go co-ed.
After his sophomore year, Read decided to take a year off. "Amherst was a far better place in many ways because of it," explained Read.
During his term of leave, he had an internship on Capitol Hill and drove up the Alcan Highway to Alaska, where he worked for the U.S. Forest Service. When he returned to the College, he was appointed news editor and eventually chairman of The Student. During his tenure, the paper was published twice a week and Read recalls the results as two near all-nighters each week-staying up until 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. to "deliver the paper to the printer in my truck with my dog in the passenger seat. [Although pets were prohibited,] back then pretty much everything was do it yourself."
An English major, Read remembers Professors of English William Pritchard and David Sofield, as well as Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat, among his most memorable professors-those who gave him "a super education," he explained. "A liberal arts education is the perfect training for a journalist, enabling one to know how to ask good questions, understand rapidly changing situations and explain them to the public."
Read lived in then all-male Stearns Hall and ended up in the first 10-person co-ed suite. "I would like to think that Amherst today is a more open, more equal, more diverse and ever more stimulating place," he said.
Read was pleased to see the eradication of the fraternities, which he feels "perpetuated social cliques and dominated the best housing on campus."
It is a matter of style
Over the years his style has evolved so that he commonly uses "non-fiction narrative writing," in an attempt to get away from "journalese," or journalistic jargon, and become more user-friendly to a general audience. He says this "informalization" is a journalistic trend, influenced by the colloquial nature of television, the primary agent of the media.
He most recently wrote a series on a spiritual leader whose followers alleged sexual, spiritual and financial abuse. Currently, he is writing about the fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks, with stories ranging from attempts to tighten the immigration system to efforts to assist the people of Afghanistan.
Read hopes to continue improving his writing, a never-ending process of constant revision. "If I ever interview someone who's doing something more compelling than journalism, perhaps I'll try that instead," he said. "In 20 years, that hasn't happened."
When asked just what is so forceful about journalism he hesitated and said, "It is true that truth is always stranger than fiction. I am amazed by human nature, its unpredictability. I never know what topic I will have to become an expert on. Who knew that I would become so knowledgeable about French fries? I interact with so many people of all backgrounds in the course of one day. In many other jobs, we become stratified, but in this profession I always feel like I can make a difference."
Although the meandering route of the journalist may not be for everyone-especially for those with visions of dollar signs glistening in their eyes. "Don't stick with the straight and narrow when choosing a career. Follow your interests and your heart."