Karen Hunter, First African-American Female News Columnist
At Daily News, To Teach At Hunter College
January 2002 ö Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Karen Hunter÷who made news herself as the first African-American woman to write a news column for the Daily News÷will be sharing her professional skills and experience with Hunter College students. "I'm looking forward to teaching at Hunter," she said, "where the students are so stimulating and have such interesting backgrounds."
Hunter will be teaching a course on basic reporting and feature writing this semester as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies. "Karen Hunter brings award-winning, real-world experience into the classroom and will surely benefit our students," said Professor Stuart Ewen, the department chairman.
Before her news column assignment, Hunter was a member of the seven-person Daily News editorial board that developed the paper's positions on city, state, national and international issues. In 1999, the editorial team won the Pulitzer Prize for best editorial writing for its campaign to save Harlem's Apollo Theatre. She has also won awards from the Associated Press, Sigma Delta Chi, the Deadline Club, and other organizations for her editorials on such topics as school reform and child welfare.
Hunter joined the Daily News in 1988 as a sports writer and went on to serve as a staff reporter in the Metro Section; a business journalist focusing on minority and sports-related business; and a features writer covering entertainment stories. Her series on rap music won an award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
In addition to her many articles, Hunter has published four books: Revelations, a spiritual autobiography with Rev. Mason Betha, formerly known as the rapper MA$E (Simon & Schuster, 2001); Grown-ass Man, a comedic book about life, with comedian/actor Cedric the Entertainer (Random House, 2001); Ladies First, the best-selling self-esteem book for girls with rapper/actress Queen Latifah (William Morrow, 1998); and I Make My Own Rules, the autobiography of rapper/actor LL Cool J (St. Martin's Press, 1997). This book was both a New York Times and national best-seller.
Before joining the Daily News, Hunter worked as an instructor for Legal Outreach, and also taught writing on Saturdays to Harlem high school students, whom she mentored. At New York University, where Hunter taught from 1996-98, she was rated one of the best undergraduate journalism professors by the Student Government.
A resident of Orange, New Jersey, Hunter holds a BA in English Literature from Drew University.