'Sharing the stories of invisible people'

 

“I didn't go into journalism thinking it would solidify my identity. I did it because I needed to make a living, and I was proficient in writing. But in becoming a journalist, I learned about other people who felt like they were on the edges of American mainstream life.” – Alex Tizon

 

Author of the award-winning memoir Big Little Man, Tomas Alexander Asuncion (Alex) Tizon was born in the Philippines on this date in 1959 but studied and lived most of his adult life in the U.S.  A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, he also taught journalism at the University of Oregon, his alma mater.

 

Tizon’s controversial final story, "My Family's Slave,” was published as the cover story of the June 2017 issue of The Atlantic after his sudden death at his home in March of that year.   A coroner’s report said the unexplained death was “from natural causes,” but investigation into the cause is still ongoing. 

 

Winner of the Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting while writing about fraud and mismanagement in the Federal Indian Housing Program -- in a series for The Seattle Times -- Tizon regularly wrote about people from all races and backgrounds who were subsisting on the margins; still a timely topic.

 

“I guess you could say I've written a lot about one thing as a journalist,” he said shortly before his death.  “.. . . it was about telling stories of people who existed outside the mainstream's field of vision.  Invisible people.”