Storm Lake

August 6, 2018
Pulitzer Prize–winning editor Cullen reflects on his 28 years chronicling small-town Iowa for the Storm Lake Times (which he co-owns) in this memoir that gracefully illuminates the challenges facing the American heartland. Composed of political history, tales of civic controversies, and human interest stories, the subject matter is elevated by Cullen’s passion into parables relevant to all Americans. The changing demographics of Storm Lake and agricultural decline serve as primary points of tension (“The wrench of efficiency turns and squeezes and turns. Every year farms grow larger and people fewer”). Cullen shows compassion for newly arrived immigrants (“Back when Latinos were starting to arrive, a bunch of good-hearted people in town set up a community get-to-know-you potluck”) and longtime residents that transcends partisanship, although he demonstrates a clear disdain for Republican congressman Steve King, “who had an uncanny way of getting his zany views of history and European (read that white) culture on national television.” At times Cullen dives too deeply into the minutiae of Storm Lake’s history, but he nevertheless remains informative. Journalism buffs will understand the struggles he faces of keeping a small publication in print with a circulation of just 3,000 and will marvel at his resourcefulness. Cullen’s portrayal of the daily livelihood of Midwesterners gives a window into small-town America.

August 15, 2018
A feisty newspaper editor speaks from the heart and the heartland.In 2017, Cullen, editor and half-owner (with his brother, the founder) of the twice-weekly newspaper the Storm Lake Times, won a Pulitzer Prize for, as the judges wrote, "editorials fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa." Those qualities are on ample display in the author's first book, a hard-hitting, urgent, and eloquent portrait of his home town, "a dot of political blue" in a state that has emerged as a forecaster of national politics. Part memoir and family history, Cullen's sharp political critique chronicles the dramatic changes and challenges faced by Storm Lake in the last four decades. Aiming to "print the truth and raise hell," he has taken on issues such as pollution, climate change, gun rights, immigration, political corruption, and the inexorable advent of industrial agriculture, dominated by Monsanto and Koch Fertilizer, which has promoted "a way of doing business more sacred than the life of the community." Abetted by politicians, corporate agriculture "got a green light to charge full speed ahead" until his newspaper's reporting "revealed who pulls the marionette strings" in Iowa. An informed electorate, writes the author, must be willing to take on stewardship of the Earth: "It doesn't cost billions more to let rivers run clean. It takes a conscience." Besides exposing the fouling of lake and soil, his paper helped Storm Lake's largely white community understand--and welcome--an influx of aspiring newcomers from around the world. Cullen excoriates the "brand of radical politics steeped in resentment" fomented by Donald Trump and Iowa's Republican congressman Steve King, "the voice of the hardscrabble western part of the state that forever thinks it has been forgotten and neglected and flown over." Trump's victory in 2016, Cullen asserts, does not predict the outcome for 2018 or 2020. Iowans, he alerts Democrats, are "yearning for a revival message" rather than "the message that tears down."An impassioned, significant book from a newsman who made a difference.

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Starred review from September 1, 2018
Cullen, editor of Storm Lake, Iowa's small hometown newspaper, the Storm Lake Times, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for a series of editorials about farming practices and water quality in northwest Iowa. Here, Cullen chronicles his early life in Storm Lake, his journalistic forays at various Midwestern newspapers, and his ultimate return home when his older brother, John, needed help managing his fledgling paper. An engaging storyteller, Cullen recounts the deeds (and misdeeds) of youth, but his writer's passion shines when he discusses the events that led him to write the prize-winning editorials. He cares deeply about his community and the changes it has undergone. Storm Lake, like many other small Midwestern towns, has seen manufacturing jobs dry up and farming morph into a corporate concern, but more uniquely, it has welcomed immigrants in search of a better life, and it is thriving. The moral, economic, and social history of a small town in Iowa might not seem like much of a story, but in Cullen's hands, it is. He and his family have sunk their roots deeply, engaged with the issues of their place, and cared enough to call out injustice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2018

Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times, won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing that challenged corporatized agriculture. Essentially a collection of linked essays documenting the essence of contemporary America through the lens of Storm Lake, a town of 10,000 in northwestern Iowa, Cullen's first book is part reminiscence, part polemic, and all memorable--if a bit confusing. In a conversational style, and with deep knowledge and a spirit of inclusivity, he introduces longtime neighbors and family members, farmers, politicians, residents of nearby towns, and Latino, Lao, and Hmong immigrants who have endured much to make a precarious home in Storm Lake. He includes these many individuals to share their responses to changing land conditions or demographics or simply to situate them within the intimate story of their place. VERDICT While hard to categorize, this wide-ranging, timely volume is, fittingly, exceptionally strong in its analysis of agricultural practice, the profound hazards of corn monoculture, and the economic and political pressures facing today's farmers. Deserving of a wide audience, it will contribute to dialogs on land use, foodways, rural life, and immigration.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2018

Half the ownership and a quarter of the news staff of the small Iowa biweekly the Storm Lake Times, Cullen won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his tossed gauntlet to agribusiness and how it has poisoned his state.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.