Mike D'Orso

Mike D'Orso (born October 12, 1953) is an American author and journalist based in Norfolk, Virginia.^[1]

Mike D'Orso
Born	(1953-10-12) October 12, 1953 (age 71) Portsmouth, Virginia
Occupation	Author, journalist
Nationality	American
Education	College of William & Mary (BA, MA)

He wrote Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood (1996), Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galapagos Islands (2002), and Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska (2006). His co-written books include Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998), written with U.S. Congressman and former civil rights leader John Lewis; Rise and Walk: The Trial and Triumph of Dennis Byrd (1993), written with New York Jet defensive end Dennis Byrd; and Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them (2011), written with actor and environmental activist Ted Danson.^[2]

Life

D'Orso's father was a U.S. Navy submarine officer and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. D'Orso was born in Portsmouth, Virginia to James and Claire D'Orso, and was raised in military base cities, including: Key West, Florida; San Diego, California; Charleston, South Carolina; and Frankfurt, Germany.^[3][4] He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the College of William and Mary in 1975 and earned a master's degree in English from William and Mary in 1981.^[5]

D'Orso was a staff writer for Commonwealth Magazine (1981-1984), features writer for The Virginian-Pilot (1984-1993), and contributor to Sports Illustrated magazine (1988-1993).^[6] Seven of his books have been best sellers: Rosewood: Like Judgment Day and Body For Life (both The New York Times);^[7][8] Walking With the Wind (The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post);^[9][10] Like No Other Time and In Praise of Public Life (The Washington Post); Rise and Walk (Bookstore Journal National Christian Bestsellers);^[11] and Winning With Integrity (Business Week).^[12] Walking With the Wind also won the 1999 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was selected for Newsweek magazine's 2009 list of "50 Books For Our Times".^[13][14]

Works

D'Orso's work often involves issues of social justice.^{[original research?]} His first book, Somerset Homecoming (1988), written with Dorothy Redford, was about Redford's investigation into her ancestors' experience as slaves in North Carolina.^[15][16]

Like Judgment Day discussed the 1923 Rosewood massacre, and the survivors' pursuit of reparations seventy years later.^[17]

Walking With the Wind was a biography of John Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement during the 1960s.^[18]

Eagle Blue was about rural Native American villagers in arctic Alaska shifting from a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, trapping and fishing to a modern cash economy.^[19]

Plundering Paradise described the social and environmental impact of thousands of Ecuadorians moving to the Galapagos Islands in search of jobs.^[20][21]

Works

• D'Orso, Michael (1988), with Dorothy Redford. Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-24245-X

• D'Orso, Michael (1990). Fast Takes: Slices of Life Through a Journalist's Eye. Norfolk, Va.: Hampton Roads Publishing. ISBN 0-9624375-6-5

• D'Orso, Michael (1992), with Carl Elliott. The Cost of Courage: The Journey of an American Congressman. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-42091-9

• D'Orso, Michael (1993), with Madeline Cartwright. For the Children: Lessons From a Visionary School Principal. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-42372-1

• D'Orso, Michael (1993), with Dennis Byrd. Rise and Walk: The Trial and Triumph of Dennis Byrd. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-017783-7

• D'Orso, Michael (1994). Pumping Granite: Portraits of People at Play. Lubbock, Tex.: Texas Tech University Press. ISBN 0-89672-338-0

• D'Orso, Michael (1996). Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood. New York: Grosset/Putnam. ISBN 0-399-14147-2

• D'Orso, Michael (1997), with Dee Hakala. Thin is Just a Four-Letter Word. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-33911-3

• D'Orso, Michael (1998), with John Lewis. Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81065-4

• D'Orso, Michael (1998), with Leigh Steinberg. Winning With Integrity: Getting What You're Worth without Selling Your Soul. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50179-7

• D'Orso, Michael (1999), with Bill Phillips. Body For Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Fitness. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019339-5

• D'Orso, Michael (2000), with Joseph Lieberman. In Praise of Public Life. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-86774-5

• D'Orso, Michael (2002). Plundering Paradise: The Hand of Man on the Galapagos Islands. New York: HarperCollins. IBN 0-06-019390-5

• D'Orso, Michael (2003), with Tom Daschle. Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Ruined America Forever. New York: Crown. ISBN 1-4000-4955-5

• D'Orso, Michael (2006). Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe and a High School Basketball Season in Arctic Alaska. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 1-58234-623-2

• D'Orso, Michael (2011), with Ted Danson. Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them. New York: Rodale. ISBN 978-1-60529-262-5