Djelloul Marbrook’s book of poems was selected as the 2007 winner of Kent State University’s Stan and Tom Wick First Book Prize in poetry. The judge was Prof. Toi Derricotte of the University of Pittsburgh. The book, Far from Algiers, was released in August 2008. His short story won the Literal Latté fiction award in the spring of 2008. His poetry appeared in Solstice (UK) and Beyond Baroque (California) in the 1960s but he stopped writing poems until Sept. 11, 2001, when he began walking in Manhattan and writing. His poems have recently been published by Arabesques Literary and Cultural Review, Perpetuum Mobile and Attic (Maryland), and The Country and Abroad (New York).
His novella, Alice Miller's Room, is available at OnlineOriginals.com. A small number of copies of his novella, Saraceno, was printed in 2005 by a Canadian publisher that failed before the book was distributed. A lively trade in used copies of Saraceno continues on the Internet. His fiction has also been published by Prima Materia (New York), Breakfast All Day (UK), and Potomac Review (DC).
He has had a distinguished career as a newspaper reporter and editor. He began studying journalism while in the Navy. When he was discharged he went to work for The Providence Journal in Rhode Island and began writing under the byline Del Marbrook.
He managed a regional bureau for The Journal before moving on to become the metropolitan editor of The Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette, the paper where the Gannett newspaper organization was born. Marbrook ran the Star-Gazette newsroom and began to acquire the production and design experience that would stand him in good stead later in his career.
He eventually moved to The Baltimore Sun as a copy editor, specializing both in makeup and production and Middle Eastern correspondence, an unusual combination that grew from his Arab history studies at Columbia. He was soon offered a job as the Sunday editor of The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal & Sentinel, where he was in charge of features, book reviews and Sunday production.
His next newspaper job was at The Washington (DC) Star, an evening newspaper. This was during the Watergate period when The Star and The Washington Post contended for dominance. Marbrook was the Saturday front page editor, specialized in foreign news and edited such syndicated columnists as Mary McGrory.
He was a cofounder of Education Funding News, a weekly Washington report on federal education news.
In the 1980s Marbrook worked for MediaNews, revitalizing six ailing daily newspapers in Ohio and New Jersey.
He has won a number of awards for writing, newspaper design and photography. His career has spanned two major transitions in modern journalism--one from hot lead typography to photo-offset and one to the Internet. He writes frequently about Internet journalism ( www.djelloulmarbrook.com ) and produces a daily blog about literary and cultural affairs. He mentors journalism students around the world for the Student Operated Press.
He retired in 1987 to write poetry and fiction and lives in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley with his wife Marilyn.
Contact: [email protected]
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