Michael Goldfarb (author and journalist)

Michael Goldfarb (born 20 September 1950) is an author, journalist and broadcaster based in London.

Early life and career

Michael Goldfarb was born in New York City and grew up in suburban Philadelphia. Upon graduating Antioch College, he returned to New York to work as an actor. Under the name Michael Govan he appeared in productions at Long Wharf Theatre and Arena Stage. In 1984-85 he was a founding member of the Pearl Theatre Company in Manhattan.

Journalism

In November 1985, Goldfarb moved to London to pursue a career in journalism. He reported on the arts for British and American newspapers, particularly The Guardian and Newsday . He became a critic for BBC Radio 4 and this work led him into broadcast journalism with National Public Radio.

From 1990-1998, Goldfarb covered British politics, the Royal Family and the five-year long process in Northern Ireland that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. He also reported from Bosnia and Iraq. Goldfarb was NPR's London Bureau Chief from 1996-98. Throughout this period he worked with the BBC and in 1994 won British radio's highest honor, the Sony Award, for his essays on the American Midwest, titled Homeward Bound.

In 1999 he was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. In 2000 he joined the Boston public radio affiliate, WBUR, as Senior Correspondent for the documentary series Inside Out. Goldfarb's programs won numerous awards including the DuPont-Columbia award for Surviving Torture: Inside Out; the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for Ahmad's War: Inside Out; and the Overseas Press Club's Lowell Thomas Award for British Jihad: Inside Out.

He is currently London Correspondent of Globalpost.com, essayist for BBC Radio 3, and regular panelist on BBC News 24's program, Dateline: London.

Books

While covering the Iraq War as an unembedded reporter in Iraqi Kurdistan, Goldfarb worked closely with the Iraqi newspaper editor Ahmad Shawkat. Following Shawkat's assassination in October 2003, Goldfarb wrote the story of his friend's life. Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2005.

The author's most recent book, Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews From the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance, is a popular history of how Jews and European society were changed by the opening of the ghettos during the era of Jewish Emancipation which began during the French Revolution.

References

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/books/review/30filkins.html (Ahmad)

http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_QQVVPQR (Ahmad)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/may/28/radio-review-essay-radio-3

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/beyond-belief-radio-4brnight-waves-radio-3-1731793.html

http://www.thejc.com/articles/interview-michael-goldfarb

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/books/review/Goldfarb.t.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/miles-kington/whose-line-is-it-anyway-651264.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/going-native-in-a-roundabout-sort-of-way-1254101.html

External links

• Official website [1]
• Globalpost.com [2]
• Inside Out [3]

http://thebrowser.com/books/interviews/michael-goldfarb