Ricki Morell

I'm a journalist, former newspaper reporter, and emerging fiction writer.

I've written for national and local print and online publications that include the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and Nieman Reports, the magazine of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

 My fiction has been published in Solstice Literary Magazine.

Before I started freelancing, I spent many years as a staff writer at the Charlotte Observer, where I was honored that my work was part of a submission named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Public Service. The series was called "Taking Back Our Neighborhoods," and I wrote a two-day investigation into crack-house landlords.

I'm working on a novel after having completed a nine-month Novel Generator Intensive Program with Marjan Kamali at the GrubStreet writing center in Boston. I’ve also attended the Cuttyhunk Writing Residency for fiction.

Among my other writing awards:

Common Ground Award for Journalism in the Middle East,

Associated Press Thomas Wolfe Award for exceptional writing,

Pangyrus Literary Magazine Fiction Contest finalist. 

Before I became a journalist, I spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Marrakech, Morocco, where I helped run a center for polio survivors. I speak French and learned Moroccan Arabic while there.

You can read my contribution to The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project here.

I’m originally from New York, went to Brandeis University and Columbia Journalism School, and now live near Boston with my family. You can read my New York Times column about selling the house I grew up in here.

Photo credit: Sharona Jacobs