Kevin C. Shelly
Home: 609-383-3901
E-Mail: KCShlly@aol.com
 

FREELANCE EXPERIENCE 

• The Derrydale Press published my biography of sporting artist Lynn Bogue Hunt in September 2003. The first edition sold out. Field & Stream magazine reviewed it as a  “must-have” and listed it as one of the most memorable outdoor books of the year. Upland Almanac called it “remarkable.” Gray’s Sporting Journal deemed it “excellent.” It was also positively reviewed in Shooting Sportsman, the Ruffed Grouse Society and Quail Unlimited.

• Magazine work anthologized in 1996 Simon & Schuster textbook on good writing, Reading for Writers.

• Short fiction published in New Jersey Outdoors fall 2001.

• Published in The Wine Spectator, New Jersey Monthly, Atlantic City Magazine, Field & Stream, Upland Almanac, Quail Unlimited Wildfowl, , New Jersey Outdoors, Mid-Atlantic Sportsman, The Pennsylvania Naturalist, , and others.

• I review books for Upland Journal website

NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCE 

-The Press of Atlantic City, 1984, Pleasantville, New Jersey: Current Circulation: 

      80,000 daily, 100,000 Sunday   

           • Assistant city editor since 1994. Oversee 12 reporters and one assistant. Run city desk, making decisions about assignments, photography and graphics. Help coordinate prewritten weekend enterprise for local and front sections. Assign all live weekend news coverage. Coordinate coverage with sports and features departments. Assist coordination of daily coverage by another 13 reporters in four bureaus. Assemble news budgets three times daily. Handle staff scheduling. Coach reporting and writing. Successfully reorganized struggling bureau. Responsible for public contact by phone and walk-ins. Routinely fill in for city editor.

          • Environmental coordinator 1997 - 1998. Coordinated, assigned or wrote environmental coverage while also overseeing general news coverage.   

          • Served on strategic planning committee and circulation committee. Conducted merit reviews. Wrote editorials. Start-up electronic publishing proposal selected for development from more than 100 competing business proposals from throughout the paper's parent company.          

          • Covered casino industry for two years immediately prior to becoming an editor. Investigative and project experience, including expose of Asian organized crime influence in casinos. Stories led to state regulatory agency hearings and two firings. Stories on state tourism agency ineptitude, mismanagement and fraud led to one resignation, one reassignment and two firings.

          • Previously at The Press of Atlantic City, award-winning municipal reporter for four years covering Atlantic City government and politics. Investigative and project experience, including story which led to firing of city finance director. Covered major corruption investigation of city government over a two-year period from arrests to court.     

        • Worked four years as general assignment and news feature writer at The Press, writing frequently on the environment.
 

ADDITIONAL NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCE

From 1984 to 1977:              

• Atlantic City-based correspondent for the Philadelphia Daily News, covering crime, casinos and government along the New Jersey shore from Cape May to Toms River, 1983.

• Award-winning municipal reporter and columnist at the Ocean County Observer, 1983-1984.

• General assignment reporter, restaurant reviewer and columnist for The Sun, an Atlantic City-area twice weekly, 1980-1982.

• Staff writer for the weekly Olde City Digest in Philadelphia, 1979.

• The editor of five zoned-weeklies in suburban Philadelphia, 1978.

• Stringer for several weeklies in suburban Philadelphia counties, 1977. 

 

AWARDS 


•  Second place, 2001, Rutgers/CIT business-writing award for magazine story on casino president addicted to gambling.

• First place for children's fiction, 1998, The Bayonne Writer's Group.

•
First place for breaking news of F-16 crash, 1997, New Jersey Press Association.

• International first place winner for news writing about politicized selection process for chief, 1990, the International Association of Firefighters.

• First place for news writing about politicized selection process for chief, the Firefighter's Association of New Jersey, 1990.
 

• First place for breaking news of municipal corruption arrests, 1989, New Jersey Press Association.

• First place for cancer news feature, 1984, the New Jersey Cancer Society.

• First place general interest columnist, 1983, New Jersey Press Association.

• First place for breaking news of sightseeing helicopter crash, 1983, The Press Club of Atlantic City.

•  I have directed the work of reporters who have won numerous journalism awards during the past 10 years


EDUCATION and TRAINING

• English literature major, Davidson College, 1973-1977.

• Seminar on merit reviews, 2004.

• American Press Institute's weeklong metro and city editors seminar, 1999.

• Seminar on dealing with difficult employees, 1998.  

•
Seminar on editing and coaching by AP's national enterprise editor, 1996.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATION and TRAINING 

• Workshop on IBM PCs, Atlantic Community College, 1996.

• Excel workshop, Atlantic Community College, 1996.

• Seminar on coaching for managers, 1996.

• Panelist on casinos at Investigative Reporters and Editors National Conference, 1996.

• Seminar on editing, 1995.

• Seminar on merit reviews, 1995.

• IRE computer-assisted reporting seminar, 1994.

• Management seminar, 1994.

• Seminar by Peter Drucker on business and the community, 1994.

• Seminar on dealing with conflict, 1994.

• IRE regional workshop on computer-assisted reporting, 1994.

 
PERSONAL

• Married. One daughter.

•  Former board member of the National Headliner's Awards committee.  Screening judge for the Headliner’s competition.

• Past-president of the Press Club of Atlantic City. Former member of the Pen & Pencil Club in Philadelphia.

• Former member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Presenter at IRE national conference on casino coverage.

• Knowledgeable about food, wine and the outdoors.


Praise for my book:

Books & Comments: The Most Worthwhile books of 2003 in the Dec. 2003-Jan. 2004 Issue of Field & Stream

LYNN BOGUE HUNT: A SPORTING LIFE. By Kevin C. Shelly. Published by the Derrydale Press. Hardcover. $60. www.derrydalepress.com

The paintings of Lynn Bogue Hunt depict a golden age of American sport fishing and hunting. After a series of covers in 1919 for Sports Afield, Hunt's work appeared on the cover of Field & Stream at least once every year from 1924 through 1947. By 1951, he had created roughly 106 covers for F&S, more than any other artist.

Kevin C. Shelly's biography of Hunt focuses mainly on the artist at work - how his life as a sportsman interplayed with his life as a painter - and doesn't delve unnecessarily into art criticism, letting the many color plates and black-and-white illustrations speak for themselves. Hunt painted it all: ducks, sailfish, upland birds, bears. If you or your children are interested in outdoor art and painting, or you want to own a collection of F&S history, this is a must-have book.

Scott Bowen, Senior Editor of Field & Stream:

"Shelly has done a remarkable job collecting snippets of the artist's days afield... Clearly written and nicely organized, it is richly spiced with Hunt's memorable work. In all, a fine testament to a talented artist."-Matt Crawford, Tailgate Review"

Shelly has done a remarkable job collecting snippets of the artist's days afield...Those who appreciate fine sporting art will find this book a keeper, but those who cherish the American literary movement in the early 20th century will find plenty of reading, too... Clearly written and nicely organized, it is richly spiced with Hunt's memorable work. In all, a fine testament to a talented artist."-Matt Crawford, The Upland Almanac

Link to recent magazine piece of Kevin's in New Jersey Monthly:
http://www.njmonthly.com/issues/Aug04/boat.htm

Link to a recent piece of Kevin's in Field & Stream: http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/0,13202,,00.html 
 

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