Dawn McMullan

Several years ago, my youngest son had to name one of my best traits to his class. He said I was a good typist.

Actually, I’m a Dallas-based freelance writer, editor, mother of two boys as I still call them (ages 21 and 24), wife of my high school sweetheart (one of them at least), and chair of the board for two schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s true though. I do type.

I think math is unforgiving. I love words because of their gorgeous flexibility and magical growth into sentences and posts and chapters and books.

I’m working on a book about gracefully transitioning from the parent-child relationship into the parent-adult-child relationship. In 2020, I kept a daily COVID journal for my Facebook and Instagram fans and perhaps my next book project. I kept a political blog for one year after the November 2016 elections called PantsuitRiot.

My paid gigs are as senior editor for the International News Media Association, occasional commentator for The Dallas Morning News and our local NPR affiliate (KERA 90.1), and feature writer for magazines like D Magazine, Child, Texas Monthly, Southern Living, Dallas/Fort Worth Child, as well as the daily digital magazine CultureMap Dallas. I spent 18 months as a contract content editor for Empower African Children (organizing blog posts and social media efforts). I also did 13-month stint as the communications director for a local state house candidate, Brandy K. Chambers, leading up to the 2018 election.

I graduated from Baylor University (an unlikely fit that left me with mostly positive memories) with a double major in journalism/poli sci. After working at a small newspaper near Dallas, I headed to Florida where I worked for slightly larger newspapers (Fort Pierce Tribune, The Stuart News), a hip alternative magazine (iCE magazine), a large metropolitan newspaper (Sun-Sentinel), then set out in the winter of 1994 with a backpack and two friends to travel Europe for six months.

I haven’t had a full-time job since. I work mostly from my Dallas home office, oftentimes in my PJs and always with dogs at my feet. My ADD helps me balance my paid writing, my book projects, my non-profit Congo Restoration, and my family (because everyone is living here during the pandemic, which is … interesting).

Please feel free to email me with interesting work assignments or just to say hello at dmcmullan@sbcglobal.net.

And now, back to the keyboard.