Santa Barbara, California. During the Great Recession, the number of Americans living in their vehicles spiked. Santa Barbara provided nighttime parking spots for the “half-homeless,” and I profiled several for “The Fallen.” The story was featured on “Now with Alex Wagner” (MSNBC) and “Bill Moyers' Journal” (PBS). It was later anthologized in The Best Business Writing 2013.
“Jeff Tietz's piece on the precariousness of a middle-class lifestyle [is] one of the best stories on unemployment that you will ever read.”
– Dean Starkman, editor, The Best Business Writing 2013
Brackettville, Texas. I spent weeks following Border Patrol trackers as they scrutinized the ground in pursuit of illegal immigrants; after innumerable hours on trails, I began to see what they saw. “Fine Disturbances” was anthologized in The Best American Crime Writing. Excerpt here.
“Back in 1998, Rolling Stone published the first of several articles by Eric Schlosser that would become the 2001 nonfiction bestseller Fast Food Nation. The magazine's Dec. 14 issue has a riveting feature by Jeff Tietz—titled Boss Hog and detailing Smithfield Foods' hog-farming operations—that deserves to be ranked with Schlosser's in the annals of excellent food-chain investigative journalism.”
– The Ethicurean
“Boss Hog” won the Genesis Award in 2006.
Littleton, Colorado. Santiago Gonzalez started college when he was 12 years old. That had not been his parents' plan, but Santiago proved too advanced for conventional gifted-and-talented programs. “Santiago's Brain” documents his experience at college and the educational failures that led him there. The story was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2011. Excerpt here.
“There are certain pieces that simply defy categorization. Jeff Tietz’s Fine Disturbances portrays in finely nuanced detail the intuitive brilliance of a great tracker.”
– Otto Penzler and Thomas H. Cook, editors, The Best American Crime Writing
Centralia, Pennsylvania. A town is destroyed not by the static coal fire burning at its edge but by demagoguery and political panic. Excerpt here.
“An uncommonly seamless blend of fluid writing and fastidious reporting, The Boy Who Loved Transit ... is much more than a sermon against injustice; it’s a complex portrait of an inscrutable character who, in Tietz’s hands, comes alive.”
– American Society of Magazine Editors
“The Boy Who Loved Transit” was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2003.
New York City, New York. Darius McCollum has spent his entire adult life impersonating New York City transit personnel, going to jail for it, getting out, and doing it again. A diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome has not changed the way the criminal justice system views him. “The Boy Who Loved Transit” was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2003; it was anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing and The Best American Crime Writing. Read the full article here.
“An artful mix of the political, the odd, the macabre, and the downright brilliant ...”
– Entertainment Weekly
Queens, New York. A profile of bounty hunter Tom Evangelista, an ethical and strategic perfectionist. Evangelista rarely leaves for a job without his pocket Constitution. “In the Event of Flight” was a finalist for the Livingstone Journalism Award.
Whiteclay, Nebraska. Whiteclay sits on the border of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Although the reservation is dry, its adult alcoholism rate exceeds sixty percent. The town of Whiteclay exists to sell cheap beer. “Whiteclay” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Excerpt here.
