John Mecklin is a journalist, novelist and editor, who specializes in narrative journalism. He was the editor-in-chief of Miller-McCune, a national public policy magazine. Mecklin is currently the editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Career After growing up in the Midwest, Mecklin enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. From January 1984 to June 1992, he worked as an investigative reporter for the Houston Post. He then matriculated at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, graduating in 1993 with a master's degree in public administration. Subsequently, he assumed a variety of leadership positions in public interest magazine journalism.
From August 1993 to February 1997, Mecklin was editor at the Phoenix New Times. He then worked as editor at SF Weekly from February 1997 to October 2005.
Mecklin became consulting executive editor for the launch of Key West Magazine from December 2005 to March 2006. Afterwards, he worked as Editor-in-Chief for the High Country News until November 2007. He moved onto Miller-McCune as Editor-in-Chief from November 2007 until March 2011.
Mecklin has acted as Editor-in-Chief for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 2014.
Awards Mecklin has received numerous honors, among others an Investigative Reporters and Editors award, a John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, and an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for Investigative Reporting. Under his guidance, journalists of the publications he managed won: several George Polk Awards;Lisa Davis, writing for SF Weekly, won it in 2001. Ray Ring, writing for High Country News, won it in 2006. the Sidney Hillman Award for reporting on social justice issues;High Country News won the award in 2008. several Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards.Peter Byrne, writing for SF Weekly, won it in 2004 . Lisa Davis, writing for SF Weekly, won it in the same year . an Environmental Journalists Outstanding Explanatory Reporting Award;Valerie Brown, writing for Miller-McCune, won it in 2009. the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award; the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism, and Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Award.
High Stakes Texas Bingo During his tenure at SF Weekly, Mecklin began working on his roman à clef High Stakes Texas Bingo. In it, Mecklin satirizes Houston politics, as he experienced it during his time at the Houston Post. The novel, which involves semi-fictitious corrupt county judges, shipping magnates, and even vice president George H.W. Bush, focuses on the machinations of Jackie Belfast (real name: Terry O'Rourke), a Democrat and attorney who, after a stint in President Jimmy Carter's White House and a subsequent period in California, returned to Houston to face off with his rival, Bingo Satwell (real name: Harris County Commissioner "Boss" Bob Eckels).
Excerpts from the novel, which has attracted a sizable underground following, are available online.The Texas Observer, August 10, 2007
Personal life John Mecklin has two children, Dunbar and Hali.harvard kennedy school magazine | 75th anniversary issue | autumn 2011 | page 33
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