Stephen Howie has 30 years of experience as a prize-winning reporter, editor, nonfiction writer, college professor and videographer. He was the first MFA student in the Creative Nonfiction writing program at the University of Pittsburgh to have his manuscript accepted for publication prior to graduation. He has worked as a staff reporter and correspondent for newspapers across the country including The Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), and more recently as an education reporter, features editor and assistant city editor at the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Washington).
Howie’s first nonfiction book, The Bluffton Charge: One Preacher’s Struggle for Civil Rights (winner of the Mammoth Books Nonfiction Prize) recounts the efforts of his parents to promote integration and equality in the Deep South in the mid-1950s. From 2016-18, Howie collaborated with Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, the head of integrative medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, to research and write Anticancer Living (Viking/Penguin), which documents the impact of lifestyle choices on cancer risk and outcomes. Howie has published essays in prominent literary journals and features in leading national and regional magazines.
In addition to his writing, Howie has shot, edited and produced a number of videos focused on social justice. He taught digital storytelling, news writing, editing, page design, feature writing and reporting for 16 years as a senior instructor in the Department of Journalism at Western Washington University.
In recent years, Howie expanded his audio expertise by taking radio- and podcast-focused courses from the Columbia Journalism School. He has produced audio features and news for KMRE, an independent community radio station in Bellingham, Washington, and currently works full time as a web producer/editor at KUOW, Seattle’s NPR news station. At KUOW, Howie is at the center of the station’s digital transformation. He writes original stories, works with reporters on web build-outs, coordinates with designers and photographers to improve visuals and graphics, leads social media planning and creates daily Instagram posts highlighting KUOW coverage. In 2023, Howie created a KUOW Tiger Team that works with reporters and editors to enhance web presentation of special projects.
