JOE SHAPIRO has joined National Public Radio to cover disability issues, poverty, mental illness and other beats. He covered many of these issues over the past years at U.S. News & World Report.  

Charlise Lyles is the editor of “CATALYST Cleveland” magazine, which provides independent reporting and analysis on urban school reform. She launched the effort in her hometown five years ago with the support of “CATALYST Chicago.” She can be reached at: www.catalyst-cleveland.org.

The Black Caucus of the American Library Awards honored Wil Haygood with its 2004 non-fiction award for “Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.” (Knopf). Will is a writer for the Washington Post’s Style section. Wil did a reading of his book at the AFI Theatre in Silver

ROBERT I. FRIEDMAN died July 2 at age 51 at Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in New York City of complications of a rare pneumonia he contracted in the slums of Bombay, India while on assignment for Vanity Fair on a story of sexual slavery. The piece ran as a cover story in

A new book by YVONNE BASKIN, “A Plague of Rats and Rubbervine: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions,” was just published by Island Press. Yvonne shows how such species as zebra mussels, kudzu and water hyacinth disrupt biodiversity when moved into new territory. Yvonne lives in Montana and writes for

MICHAEL D’ANTONIO and Andrew Spielman have written “Mosquito: The Story of Man’s Deadliest Foe.” It was published in June by Science/Hyperion Books.

The Nieman Foundation selected Alma Guillermoprieto as a fellow this year. Alma, a contributor to The New Yorker, also had her book about her year teaching ballet in Cuba, “Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution,” translated from the Spanish and published by Pantheon Books.

“The Folly of Empire: What George W. Bush Could Learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson,” by John Judis was published before the election by Simon & Schuster.