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Daniel Connolly

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Born

Memphis, The United States

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DanielConnolly

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November 2015

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Daniel Connolly uses rigorous reporting to tell true stories about immigration, economics and globalization.

A fluent speaker of Spanish and German, he was born in Memphis, graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio and completed a postgraduate Fulbright teaching fellowship in Germany. He moved to Alabama in 2002 to work at the former Birmingham Post-Herald newspaper, where he completed a major project on Mexican immigration.

He moved to Little Rock, Arkansas and covered immigration for The Associated Press before returning to Memphis in 2006 to join the staff of The Commercial Appeal newspaper, where he still works. In addition to immigration reporting, he’s investigated multi-million dollar government payments to a Swedish corporation and Mexica ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

Who is your favorite fictional couple, and why?

Daniel Connolly I'm really hard-pressed to answer this. Hmm. Well, to give a highbrow answer it's Orpheus and Eurydice - Orpheus goes down to the underworld to get hi…moreI'm really hard-pressed to answer this. Hmm. Well, to give a highbrow answer it's Orpheus and Eurydice - Orpheus goes down to the underworld to get his wife, which is a great act of devotion. Unfortunately it doesn't go well.
My pop culture answer is Ricky and Lucy from "I Love Lucy."(less)

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Daniel Connolly I don't really have a problem with writer's block. I've always been able to sit down and write something - the only problem I've had is that what I wr…moreI don't really have a problem with writer's block. I've always been able to sit down and write something - the only problem I've had is that what I write the first time isn't very good.

Since 2006, I have used a process that I adopted from the writing coach Chip Scanlan. I follow these steps.

First, I quickly write answers to these five questions.

-Why does it matter?
- What’s the point?
- Why is this story being told?
- What does it say about life, about the world, about the times we live in?
- What’s the story really about? (one word!)

With the answers to those five questions in mind, I use a word processor to write a first draft.
2) Then I print out the draft.
3) I read it out loud, word for word.
4) As I read, I mark problems in the text that I need to change, marking them physically on the printout.
5) I fix the problems one by one, revising in the word processor. Sometimes it's as simple as fixing a typo. Other times, I need to check a fact by conducting an interview.
6) Then I repeat those steps over and over, until I either hit my deadline or I'm satisfied with the work.

I do this whether I'm writing a 400-word article or a book.

I learned this process through an online course I took with Chip Scanlan himself, but I looked him up just now and I see that he's co-authored a textbook that you can check out:

http://www.amazon.com/News-Writing-Re...(less)

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Daniel Connolly’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 127 ratings · 31 reviews · 1 distinct work

The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America

4.10 avg rating — 127 ratings — 2 editions

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Daniel’s Recent Updates

Daniel Connolly rated a book it was amazing Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy by Craig Whitlock	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A dark topic - human greed - but told in a detailed, highly readable way. This book won the top book prize from Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the quality shows in the research and the telling.
Sep 24, 2025 12:04PM · 1 like · like · see review
Daniel Connolly rated a book it was amazing The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston's Lost Boys by Lise Olsen	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Author Lise Olsen paints a vivid picture of Houston in the 1970s, of a horrific string of homicides of young men and boys that took place at the hands of serial killer Dean Corll and his accomplices, and of the efforts of forensic scientists to ident ...more
Aug 20, 2025 09:46AM · like · see review
Daniel Connolly rated a book it was amazing Selling Apartheid: South Africa’s Global Propaganda War by Rob Nixon	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
“Selling Apartheid” focuses on the public relations campaign that South Africa’s apartheid government conducted over a period of decades: creating supposedly neutral front groups that secretly backed South Africa, recruiting Black spokespersons in su ...more
Jun 26, 2024 08:10AM · like · see review