Nuwer, Hank 1946- (Henry Nuwer, Henry Joseph Nuwer)

PERSONAL:

Born August 19, 1946, in Buffalo, NY; son of Henry Robert (a truck driver and delivery person) and Teresa (an assembly-line worker and maid) Nuwer; married Alice M. Cerniglia, December 28, 1968 (divorced, 1980); married N. Jenine Howard (an editor), April 9, 1982 (divorced, 2004); married Lizabeth Klein (a trade show sales representative), August 9, 2005; children: (first marriage) Henry Christian; (second marriage) Adam Robert Drew. Ethnicity: "Polish and Alsatian." Education: Buffalo State College of the State University of New York, B.S., 1968; New Mexico Highlands University, M.A., 1971; Ball State University, Ph.D. equivalency, 1987. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Quarter horses, tropical fish, stamp collecting, baseball, fishing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Waldron, IN. Office—Department of Journalism, Franklin College, 101 Branigin Blvd., Franklin, IN 46131. Agent—Kevin and Jayne Moore, 809 Turnberry Dr., Waunakee, WI 53597-2256.

CAREER:

Freelance writer, 1969—. Chic (magazine), member of editorial staff, 1976-77; Clemson University, Clemson, SC, assistant professor, 1982-83; Ball State University, Muncie, IN, assistant professor, 1985-89; Arts Indiana (magazine), Indianapolis, IN, editor in chief, 1993-95; University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, associate professor of journalism, 1995-97; Anderson University, Anderson, IN, adjunct professor of journalism, 1998-2001; Franklin College, Franklin, IN, associate professor of journalism, 2002—. Indiana University at Indianapolis, adjunct professor, 1995—; professional speaker on hazing and on nonfiction writing, 1990—; guest on numerous media programs, including CNN Headline News, NBC Nightly News, and Fox on Education; consultant for the television movie Moment of Truth: Broken Pledges, aired by National Broadcasting Co., 1994; also consultant on hazing to National Collegiate Athletic Association.

MEMBER:

Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Magazine Advisor of the Year, College Media Advisors, 1988; honorary D.H.L., Buffalo State College of the State University of New York, 2005.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor, with Kelsie T. Harder and William Baines) Brushfire: A Centennial Edition, Associated Students of the University of Nevada (Reno, NV), 1975.

(With Carole Shaw) Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are, R & R Press, 1982.

(Editor, with Robert G. Waite) Rendezvous at the Ezra Pound Centennial Conference, 1986.

Strategies of the Great Football Coaches, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1987.

Strategies of the Great Baseball Managers, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1988.

Rendezvousing with Contemporary Authors, Idaho State University Press (Pocatello, ID), 1988.

Recruiting in Sports, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1989.

Steroids, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1990.

Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, Longstreet Press (Atlanta, GA), 1990.

Sports Scandals, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1994.

How to Write like an Expert about Anything, Writers Digest (Cincinnati, OH), 1995.

The Legend of Jesse Owens (juvenile biography), Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1998.

Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1999.

High School Hazing: When Rites become Wrongs (juvenile), Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2000.

To the Young Writer: Nine Writers Talk about Their Craft, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor) The Hazing Reader, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2004.

At the Crest: A History of Cedar Crest College from 1867-1988, Cedar Crest Alumnae Association (Allentown, PA), 2004.

Correspondent for Onhealth.com online magazine, 1998-2001. Contributor to health books published by the magazine Prevention. Contributor to periodicals, including Saturday Review, Harper's, Inside Sports, Nation, Outside, Success, GQ, New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Sport.

Nuwer's manuscripts are collected at Buffalo State College of the State University of New York.

NOVELS; WITH WILLIAM BOYLES

The Deadliest Profession, Playboy Press (Chicago, IL), 1980.

A Killing Trade, Playboy Press (Chicago, IL), 1981.

The Wild Ride, Playboy Press (Chicago, IL), 1981.

Blood Mountain, Playboy Press (Chicago, IL), 1982.

ADAPTATIONS:

Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing was adapted for a television movie, Moment of Truth: Broken Pledges, aired by National Broadcasting Co. in 1994.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hank Nuwer is best known for his writings on the practice of hazing, a ritual initiation into fraternities and other organizations that can often involve humiliation, sexual abuse, and physical violence. Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing provides a detailed account of many of these rites, including stories of those who were injured or killed during initiations. Since the appearance of Broken Pledges, Nuwer has been viewed as one of America's leading experts on the subject of hazing, speaking on the topic at numerous colleges and universities as well as appearing on national television.

As Nuwer told Linda Star in an interview in Education World: "Collegiate hazing has resulted in at least 59 fraternity deaths and one athletic death since the 1970s, when [forced consumption of] alcohol became a big part of the rituals." Nuwer added that a recent survey had indicated the use of alcohol and illegal drugs had now become common in initiations into organizations at the high school level. Linking the increased violence found in initiation rites to violence in the media and society in general, Nuwer went on to reject the argument that hazing can be a character-building experience. "Hazing doesn't breed character," he stated. "It breeds deception, and it gives bullies an opportunity to get their licks in while, at the same time, getting the group's approval."

Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking continues and updates the exploration Nuwer began with Broken Pledges. Writing in Library Journal, Danna C. Bell-Russel described Wrongs of Passage as "extremely well researched, with lots of interviews with victims of hazing and the parents of those who have died," and recommended it highly for both academic libraries and the offices of student activity coordinators. The book includes a history of hazing in fraternities and past efforts to discourage it, along with Nuwer's own ideas about prevention. On the heels of Wrongs of Passage, Nuwer published High School Hazing: When Rites become Wrongs, which shifts its focus to hazing in the nation's high schools and aims at a high school audience. Booklist contributor Randy Meyer found the organization of the book to be "too loose" and its narrative "repetitive at times," but he commended Nuwer's passion for his subject and found the author's suggestions for dealing with hazing to be "a real call to action." Key among Nuwer's solutions to the problem are more serious legal penalties for offenders, clearly defined school policies, and counseling for both the perpetrators and the victims of hazing.

Nuwer has published several other books aimed at the high school level, including a biography of 1936 Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, The Legend of Jesse Owens, and To the Young Writer: Nine Writers Talk about Their Craft, a collection of nine interviews with established contemporary authors. Reviewing the former volume in Booklist, Roger Leslie stated: "This densely detailed biography occasionally sags under the weight of redundancy, but it shows obvious reverence for Owens and the dignity with which he faced his tribulations." Leslie also felt that the book could provide inspiration for readers in its depiction of how Owens, a grandson of slaves who was born into poverty, overcame racism "by simply being true to himself." Included in To the Young Writer are interviews with screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, poet Rebecca Kai Dotlich, novelist Phyllis Reynolds Taylor, and journalist Patrick O'Driscoll. Nuwer told Star that one of his primary aims with To the Young Writer was to provide role models for teenagers. He plans a similar book for young people containing interviews with prominent athletes.

Nuwer once commented to CA: "My first books and magazine articles were humorous, frivolous, satirical, and adventurous pieces that reflected both the times in the seventies and early eighties and my own thrill-seeking tendencies. I wrote about playing minor-league baseball on assignment, accompanying a part-time bounty hunter on his appointed rounds, visited herders in remote sheep camps out West, and flew the unfriendly skies of Idaho with a rescue pilot. From 1983 to 1990, I began thinking of myself more as a journalist and less and less as an entertainer, writing mainly about health, fitness, and sports. My work after 1990 tends to be serious and spiritual: personal essays, a book examining deaths resulting from fraternity initiations, a history of women's education, and investigative journalism." "Nonetheless," Nuwer later added, "in 2006 I wrote about my experience as an older writer living through the experience of riding a live brahma bull in a rodeo."

In his original contribution to CA, Nuwer wrote: "Buffalo State College teacher and author Fraser Drew has been my lifelong mentor. Since 1982 my former wife Jenine, an editor, has not only served as a trusted editor but also as a friend and counselor. In the seventies and eighties I heeded advice from authors Jesse Stuart, Gian-Carlo Bertelli, Robert Laxalt, Ron Rash, Mark Steadman, Jim Harrison, and David Mamet. An editor at Longstreet Press named Jane Hill, and Poynter Institute for Media Studies writing coaches Roy Clark and Donald Fry helped me discipline my writing style. In the mid-nineties Indiana authors Scott Russell Sanders and Susan Neville, both contributors to Arts Indiana, which I then edited, inspired me to write personal essays.

"The major career satisfaction I've had as a journalist is that my Broken Pledges has helped illuminate the problem of hazing to help eliminate deaths by hazing. As a teacher I feel fulfilled because some of my own students have become authors and editors."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Athletic Business, December, 2003, Michael Popke, "Uncivil Rites: A Rash of Ugly Hazing Incidents."

Booklist, January 1, 1999, Roger Leslie, review of The Legend of Jesse Owens, p. 851; April 1, 2000, Randy Meyer, review of High School Hazing: When Rites become Wrongs, p. 1450.

Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1994, Staci D. Kramer, "Houses of Pain."

Christian Science Monitor, September 21, 2000, Robert Myers, "Above the Pressure to Belong," and Kermit Pattison, "Minnesota Grapples with How to End Hazing in High School."

Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10, 1990, Michelle N.R. Collison, "New Book Examines Hazing as a Rite of Passage for Men and Women"; November 13, 1991, Susan Dodge, "Military Academies Crack Down on the Hazing of Freshmen."

Library Journal, September 1, 1999, Danna C. Bell-Russel, review of Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking, p. 219.

NCAA News, September 26, 2005, Michelle Brutlag Hosick, "The Hidden Hazards of Hazing: Educators Continue to Fight against an Unwanted, Unsafe, and Often Unspoken Phenomenon."

Newsweek, December 8, 2003, Sarah Childress, "Frat Hazing: A Dangerous New Drinking Game."

New York Times, January 27, 1993, William Celis, "Hazing's Forbidden Rites Are Moving Underground"; December 21, 1994, Peter Apple- bome, "Lawsuit Shatters Code of Silence"; March 55, 2000, Andrew Jacobs, "Hazing in High School Turns More Violent"; March 19, 2000, Robert Mackey, "Join the Club: Expert Opinion Hazing"; January 5, 2005, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, "Ban of Brothers."

Sports Illustrated, December 22, 2003, Grant Wahl, "Hazing: A High School Tragedy."

USA Today, February 28, 2002, Mary Beth Marklein, "Binge Drinking's Campus Toll."

Wall Street Journal, November 18, 1994, Elaine Lisser, "Violent Hazing Threatens Black Greek Societies."

ONLINE

Education World,http://www.educationworld.com/ (September 9, 2000), Linda Starr, "An Education World E-Interview with Hank Nuwer, Author of High School Hazing: When Rites become Wrongs."

Welcome to Writer Hank Nuwer Web site,http://www.hanknuwer.com (June 14, 2005).