Juniper (French)

Author Bio
Kelley Benham French
• Birth—1974
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., University of Florida; M.A., University of Maryland
• Awards—Finalist, Pulitzer Prize
• Currently—lives in Bloomington, Indiana


Kelley Benham French, has been an American journalist, 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and now professor of Journalism at Indiana University. She and her husband are co-authors of Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon (2016), the story of their baby daughter's birth at 23 weeks and the couple's decision to fight for her survival. At the time of the book's release, Juniper was a healthy three-year-old.

Career
French received her B.A. from University of Florida and her M.A. from the University of Maryland. From 1998 to 2001, she taught high school journalism, mass media, film, newspaper, yearbook and photo-journalism classes at a magnet journalism high school in Deerfield Beach, Florida. She helped produce the school’s first online newspaper and was named the Florida Scholastic Press Association’s district teacher of the year in 1998.

In 2002 French joined the Tampa Bay Times as reporter, feature writer and, later, editor. As a reporter, she covered several hurricanes and an execution, and she wrote the obituary of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman with brain damage who died after a right-to-life legal battle that received national attention.

She became a deputy editor in 2006 of the Floridian, the Times’ feature section. Appointed as full editor in 2008, she helped to create and lead the paper's Enterprise Team, editing two stories that became Pulitzer Prize finalists—one of which revealed decades of abuse at a state-run reform school, leading to its closure.

In addition to her work for the Times, she served as a visiting faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a journalism school (and owner of the Tampa Bay Times). She also taught at the University of Florida and spoken about writing at universities, workshops, and conferences around the country.

In 2013 French became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for "Never Let Go," a series about the premature birth of her and Thomas French's daughter. The series considered  the ethical and medical dilemmas involved in saving the lives of premature babies.

In 2014 she joined Indiana University (where her husband Thomas French also teaches) as a professor of journalistic practice. Her position is at the university's Media School, which unites faculty from the School of Journalism and the departments of telecommunications and communication and culture. Upon her appointment, French commented:

I’ve spent my career in a newsroom stocked with brilliant journalists who periodically break out into the IU fight song, so I’m...thrilled to be joining the Media School at this pivotal moment, when the teaching of reporting, writing and thinking has never been more important.

(Adapted from IU Bloomington Newsroom.)