JOHN W. FOUNTAIN has been a national
correspondent for The New York Times (2000 to 2003),
based in Chicago. He is currently a professor of journalism
at
Roosevelt University in Chicago. Until recently, he
was a tenured full professor at his alma mater, the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor
Fountain was formerly a visiting scholar at the Medill
School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston.
He was previously a reporter for the Chicago Tribune
and The Washington Post. In a journalism career
that has spanned 20 years, he also has written for the
Wall Street Journal, Chicago Sun-Times,
Modesto Bee, Pioneer Press Newspapers in
suburban Chicago and the Champaign News-Gazette.
His stories have appeared in news publications across the
country, and include his recent poignant essay,
"No Place for Me" on his disenchantment with
the "Black Church," a commentary first published in the
Washington Post and subsequently in newspapers across
the country, including the Dallas Morning News,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Sun-Times,
Louisville Courier and the Biloxi Sun Herald,
among others. A licensed minister with Pentecostal roots,
Prof. Fountain holds bachelor's and master's degrees from
the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and he has
been a Michigan Journalism Fellow
(MJF) at the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of
Providence-St. Mel High School in Chicago. He grew up in the
Church of God In Christ and later became a youth minister at
True Vine Church of God in Christ, where his grandfather,
the Reverend George A. Hagler, still pastors in Bellwood ,
Illinois. John and his wife, Monica--also a
writer-journalist and daughter of a Baptist pastor--and
their two children live in the south suburbs of Chicago.
The author is available for
readings, events, conferences, lectures and motivational
speaking at schools, churches and other occasions.
True Vine John W. Fountain
P.O. Box 485
Matteson, Illinois 60443
708-481-8350
Or email: Author@JohnWFountain.com
“…For without me ye can do nothing.”
John 15:5
True Vine: A Young Black Man's Journey of Faith, Hope, and
Clarity
by John W. Fountain
