ABOUT THE AUTHORLorraine Ahearn
Lorraine Ahearn has worked for daily newspapers for 25 years as an investigative reporter and projects writer, first at the Annapolis Capital, and currently at the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., where she was also metro columnist for 12 years.
A native of Huntington, N.Y., she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she holds degrees in English, French and Liberal Studies.
She's also an occasional contributor to "Real People, Real Stories" on NPR 88.5 FM (WFDD) at Wake Forest University.
About the illustrator
John Hitchcock owns Parts Unknown, The Comic Book Store. In 2006, he was nominated for the prestigious Isner Award for “Dear John, The Alex Toth Doodle Book,” an illustrated book of correspondence between Hitchcock and longtime friend Toth, the legendary artist and Hanna-Barbera animator. The book is considered to be the definitive book on Toth and his work.
Hitchcock, an authority on the history of comic books, North Carolina Tar Heel basketball and professional wrestling, is a Greensboro native and graduate of Greensboro College, where he holds a BFA in painting. Visit him at partsunknown.net.
What people are saying about Lorraine Ahearn
Hers is the work of a journalist interested in reportorial discovery, and her reporting is superb. She’s on the street, investing shoe leather, sticking notes in screen doors, talking to real people and listening to what they say. She obviously knows these stories before she ever touches a keyboard.
— Kevin Merida, The Washington Post
Reading these columns, I was moved more times per inch of type than I’ve been in a long time.
— Diane Bacha, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Her insightful writing commands attention and fosters a connection between readers and the larger community... She uses a reporter’s eyes and ears, a writer’s voice and a columnist’s heart to great effect.
— Chip Scanlan, Poynter Institute
Sometimes, when I read Lorraine Ahearn’s stories I cry. Sometimes I feel anguish and I want to do something. But most of the time when I read her writing, I just feel.
— James Hunt, newspaper subscriber
From The Author
"Other than a hot toddy, perhaps, nothing warms the bones like a fireside yarn. 'The Man Who Became Santa Claus, and Other Winter Tales' is straight from the sidewalks of Greensboro — true-life characters we'll recognize from the 24-hour breakfast counter at Jan's Diner, the precinct house downtown, the all-night mission or the volunteer firehouse on Thanksgiving Day: They are sinners, saints, and most of them, somewhere between the two, game faces we meet in the winter of the year."
— Lorraine Ahearn, October 2009
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