Nora Neus Visits RHS

Tucked away in a small room at the back of the RHS library with twenty or so students and teachers scattered around in a loose half circle on Wednesday January 14th, author Nora Neus gave a talk at Roosevelt during flex. Quick, impactful, and highly inspiring! Nora shared stories from her early career as a news anchor at CNN to her job as a producer to a published author with multiple books under her name. Nora was invited to Portland to speak at Powell’s about her most recent book 24 Hours at the Capital. Nora was hosted at Roosevelt by QSA and the Women’s Empowerment Club with the help of Nora’s cousin, a student at Roosevelt. She came to talk for free and have a more relaxed book talk to discuss her many careers in journalism and reporting.

Nora Neus began her career as a news reporter on a local station, she described this as the hardest job she’s had because of the constant emotional whiplash she had to deal with due to the variety of stories she would report on. Later, she transitioned into a job as a producer with CNN, which is where she did most of her work before becoming an author. During her experience at CNN, Nora would travel all over to report on current events. She travels to report on events like the Ukrainian war when it first began and Uvalde Texes, when the school shooting happened.  I got the chance to interview Nora and I asked how she dealt with reporting on such heavy and nuanced topics like mass shootings and wars she responded, “I think they’re important, I think if I was reporting on “easier” topics I wouldn’t be as motivated”. The world of reporting and news is very important and it’s amazing to have people like Nora who are motivated enough to put themselves at risk to inform the public

My favorite part of the talk is when the audience got to ask questions. One student asked Nora about how interacting with civilians was when she was in Ukraine during the war. She told a story of when she was in Ukraine. In the morning she had gone to a little town square, she was in a city within the war zone where most civilians had evacuated. In the square she saw a little Ukrainian girl, likely a child of a soldier running around happily holding a yellow and blue Ukrainian colored balloon. Even though the girl was in the middle of the war she was still running around in glee unaware of the tragedy around her. Nora described the emotions that come along with dealing with such harsh topics like war, and dealing with civilians who are facing these struggles every day. Nora has the privilege of being able to fly home when she is done reporting but the civilians, like this little girl, are trying to find bits of joy in the middle of vast conflicts.

Another question was asked about Nora’s writing process for her graphic novels. Nora has two graphic novels Renegade Girls, a fiction book about two young women and their investigative reporting and Muhammed Najem: War Reporter, a book about a real boy who reported on the Syrian Civil War as it was happening. Muhhamed co-wrote the book with Nora and she developed a strong friendship with him throughout the process. Both books are targeted to a young adult audience. The process as Nora described for writing these books was a lot like writing a script, writing dialogue for each panel and descriptions of surroundings. Nora is unique in the way that she directly worked with the illustrator of her books. Normally in the making of graphic novels illustrators and writers never directly interact but in the process of making these books Nora worked side by side with her illustrator Julia Robine.

By the end of her visit, I felt as if I learned very valuable insight into the world of journalism and writing. The work Nora does is truly inspiring and courageous and I am very glad the Roosevelt community was able to benefit from her visit.