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Douglas John Imbrogno on Muck Rack

Douglas John Imbrogno

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West Virginia
As seen in: WestVirginiaVille.com, Medium, Substack, U.S. News and World Report, The Seattle Times, Miami Herald, Washington Times, The Sacramento Bee, Stars and Stripes, The News & Observer, Times Union (Albany) and
Covers:  Essays, Features. Memoir. Photo-essays. Documentaries and Short-form Video. Climate Change. Music. Poetry. Cosmology. Cigars and Cats.
Doesn't Cover: Wine tasting, Drag Racing, Dog Shows
Cranky, concerned readings of the web. Plus, cute-animal mental health retweets & links to essays, poetry, handmade videos & other very un-viral stuff.

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Douglas John Imbrogno’s Biography

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Douglas John Imbrogno is a lifetime storyteller, essayist, feature writer, editor and multimedia producer and documentarian. He worked three decades for the Charleston Gazette, as a long-form feature writer and feature editor, spearheading the paper's multimedia efforts. In early 2020, he co-founded the multimedia online magazine, WestVirginiaVille.com (now on intermittent hiatus) and the award-winning documentary and storytelling production house, AmpMediaProject.com, whose multimedia work ha…

Douglas John Imbrogno’s Journalist Portfolio

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The heart-rending and oligarchic view from 'Coal Country'

The heart-rending and oligarchic view from 'Coal Country'

The incendiary, heartbreaking "Coal Country," a play drawn from interviews with survivors and family members …

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A Lifetime of Song from the Heart

A Lifetime of Song from the Heart

The Woody Hawley Concert Series in Charleston WV, paid tribute to John Lilly on Jan. 8, 2021, one of West Vir…

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REVIEW: Channeling Dorothy Parker in West Virginia

REVIEW: Channeling Dorothy Parker in West Virginia

Dorothy Parker was a figure out of a Dorothy Parker story. Fleshing out the life of the critic, poet, short-s…

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Joe Turner: The Decorated West Virginia Military Pilot You've Never Heard Of

Joe Turner: The Decorated West Virginia Military Pilot You've Never Heard Of

The jet dropped like a silvery stone out of the sky overtop West Virginia's capital city. It evened out just …

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After layoffs, a last sermon from a West Virginia 'multimedia evangelist'

After layoffs, a last sermon from a West Virginia 'multimedia evangelist'

SOMETIMES, I THINK I should have been a Starbucks barista, in terms of job security. But I began work for the…

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How the pawpaw was found, got lost and was found again

How the pawpaw was found, got lost and was found again

Pawpaws have been rediscovered and celebrated in a host of products from pawpaw beer to pawpaw popsicles. But…

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Articles

FROM ITALY, WITH LOVE

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By Douglas John Imbrogno Verified
| WestVirginiaVille.com
So, here’s the thing. My father was born in 1925, way up in the rolling Calabrian hills of southern Italy. He was christened with a first name — Dulio — that I could never find attached to any other Dad, official person, or random guy in the fat American phone books of my youth. I had no trouble finding a rhyming name with its own cross-cultural roots — ‘Julio.’ Yet as for finding anyone named ‘Dulio’?
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IT’S A POETRY THING: Reports from the front lines of the life of the weekend poet.

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By Douglas John Imbrogno Verified
| WestVirginiaVille.com
For those of us who tend towards loquacious prose and who routinely lose control of our runaway, run-on sentences, poetry can be cathartic. Kate Long, my first serious writing coach back in the glory days of The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia’s capital city, fundamentally changed my writing when she kept red-lining the appearance of what she dubbed ‘The Professor’ in my raw copy.
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LIGHT SHOWS for DARK TIMES

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By Douglas John Imbrogno Verified
| WestVirginiaVille.com
by DOUGLAS JOHN IMBROGNO | westvirginiaville.substack.com | july 30, 2025 How do you start a post ranging from sweeping daytime mountainscapes and arty-farty midnight abstractions, to an encounter with a rattletrap religious schoolbus and clips of a killer band ripping it up in Thomas, W.Va.? I mean to say: How do I profess to share aesthetic offerings and artful encounters when a broken man and his succubus supplicants continue to break America in fresh, inventive ways daily?
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

Intern at Cincinnati Enquirer out of Miami University, then cops beat reporter at the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in West Virginia.

Have you ever used a typewriter?

IBM Selectric back in the day as a Miami U. student journalist. Also own a 1930s Royal typewriter heavy as an anvil, but now a decoration.

How is social media changing news?

Training folks to be impatient

Awards

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SiciliAmbiente Festival, in Sicily, Italy.

2021 - Short-form Documentary

For "100 Days of Badass Women": Overwhelmed by the headlines, Donald Trump, a pandemic and winter coming, West Virginia artist Sassa Wilkes couldn’t get to the easel. Then, RBG died and Sassa found she wished to get to know the legal legend by painting her portrait. The artist kept on going, painting 99 more portraits of badass women from present to past.

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Montreal Independent Film Festival

2021 - Short Documentary

The 19-minute WestVirginiaVille.com documentary "100 Days of badass Women" was chosen an Official selection in the 2021 Montreal Independent Film Festival. FOR MORE ON THE DOCUMENTARY: https://westvirginiaville.com/2021/02/100badasswomenvideo/

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Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Journalism First Place Award for Feature Writing.

2014 - Feature Writing

She was a street person who called herself ‘Elizabeth’ among other names. But she had surprising secrets in her past, and had been a rising New Wave star named 'George,' whom Ric Ocasek of The Cars sought out twice in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Yet. George's decision to become 'Elizabeth' and to start wearing dresses and identify as a woman in Bible-Belt Arkansas upended life, sending her on-the-road, lost to her family for a quarter century. Then, one day, she showed up on the streets of West Virginia's capital city. And everything changed again.

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Black Star International Film Festival in Accra, Ghana.

2021 - Short-form Documentary

“What’s In a Name?” The Deeper Story Behind a WV Confederate Legacy: The removal of a Confederate general’s name from the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School in West Virginia’s capital city was more than just a cosmetic change. In 2020, America confronted the wounds that have haunted the country’s existence. The renaming of the school laid bare that history.

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Phoenix Shorts Film Festival, Toronto

2021 - Short Documentary

“What’s In a Name?” The Deeper Story Behind a WV Confederate Legacy" is a 2020 documentary by WestVirginiaVille.com about the removal of a Confederate general’s name from the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School in West Virginia’s capital city. The 16-minute documentary takes a deep dive into the institutional racism and unhealed wounds of the Civil War that continue to resonate in American society. SEE MORE HERE: https://westvirginiaville.com/2020/10/mini-doc-whats-in-a-name-the-deeper-story-behind-a-confederate-legacy/

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Accolade Global Film Competition

2021 - Music Video

“LAY THAT BURDEN DOWN”: A Musical Homage to John Lewis, sung by Lady D, is an original music video production by AMP Media of WestVirginiaVille.com . The song channels the life, courage, and heart of John Lewis. The music video was an Official selection in the 2021 Accolade Global Film Competition.

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