Holland author Milton Nieuwsma shares stories from career in new book, 'Dateline: World'
HOLLAND — Milton Nieuwsma wanted to share 21 stories from his journalism career that spans four decades. He hopes with each story, readers of his new book will know more about the world.
Nieuwsma, of Holland, released “Dateline: World — 20 Dispatches from the Earth & One from Hell” earlier this month. It is a compendium of stories Nieuwsma wrote for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers over 40 years.
The book is available at Readers World, 194 S. River Ave., in Holland. It is also available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Books-A-Million and Bookshop.org.
“This book is for people with short attention spans like mine,” Nieuwsma wrote in his author’s note. “Except for the occasional foray into how we humans treat the planet and each other, each piece stands alone. Read one at bedtime each night, it won’t take you but 15 minutes. Not only that, but when you turn off the light, you’ll know a little more about the world than you did before.”
Nieuwsma got the inspiration for the book after he and his wife sorted through books at their home to donate to a sale. He came across “By-Line: Ernest Hemingway,” a 1967 book edited by William White, who was the journalism director at Wayne State University and a colleague of Nieuwsma. The book is a collection of stories during Hemingway’s journalism career, mainly at The Kansas City Star.
“I thought, 'Huh, I could do something like this,'” Nieuwsma told The Sentinel.
The description or Nieuwsma's book reads: “He takes you to the Arctic and the Antarctic; to the Amazon and the Nile; to Auschwitz, the scene of humanity's greatest crime, and to a rural Mississippi courtroom where the acquittal of Emmett Till's killers sparked the civil rights movement.”
Nieuwsma went through his files and reduced a couple hundred stories into 21. Tom Stites, Nieuwsma’s former editor at the Chicago Tribune and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote the book’s foreword.
"Milt Nieuwsma is a master of his craft," Stites wrote on the book’s back cover. "Its value still leaps out of the page at the reader."
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Nieuwsma spent about a year writing “Dateline: World," dating back to summer 2022.
“Out of the stories I saved, I just pulled them out of a file, read them and determined which ones might still be most timely,” Nieuwsma said.
Nieuwsma is a two-time Emmy Award-winning writer. He is the creator of the PBS programs “Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah” and “Inventing America: Conversations with the Founders.” His previous book, “Miracle on Chestnut Street: The Untold Story of Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence,” was released in 2021.
More: Holland Sentinel's Sarah Leach to be nominated for Pulitzer Prize
Nieuwsma and Stites signed copies of “Dateline: World” after a Hope Academy of Senior Professionals panel discussion on Sept. 5 at Hope College. Stites was the program's keynote speaker.
— Contact reporter Evan Sasiela at esasiela@sentinel-standard.com. Follow him on Twitter @SalsaEvan.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland author shares stories from journalism career in new book
