Don Fry

Don Fry, an independent writing coach, has taught more than 10,000 authors to write faster, clearer, and with less agony. He also helps editors edit better, and managers organize better. Don has had two careers, first as an English professor at the University of Virginia and at Stony Brook University, and then in journalism. He headed the writing and ethics faculties at the Poynter Institute, and edited the Institute’s series “Best Newspaper Writing.” Roy Peter Clark and Don, friends for 40 years, collaborated on “Coaching Writers.”

In 1994, Don became an independent writing coach, working with newspapers and technical magazines, radio and television stations, and non-profit organizations. He has spread the techniques of coaching throughout the world, especially in Singapore, Scandinavia, and South Africa. He helped create the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg.

Don recently published “Writing Your Way: Creating a Writing Process That Works for You“ (Cincinnati: Writers Digest, 2012). This book shows professional writers how to develop their own collection of techniques appropriate to the way they think, rather than following the methods of their teachers, which may not work for them. The second half shows how to create your own writing voice.

For fun, Don creates mechanical sculptures in wood and metal that make viewers rethink classic stories. Don writes fiction for his own amusement, mostly about World War II. His second novel concerns a newspaper that attempts to solve its management problems by hiring a hit man.