Happy New Year! 50 Cent A Word And More in 2024!
Your support is the wind beneath my wings. Proof positive that there are still those who value this craft called writing and its practitioners who labor not for money, but for the joy
By John W. Fountain
Dear Subscriber,
This story is once again a story about you. I want to thank you specifically for joining the “50 Cent A Word Substack” family. It has been exactly a year since I began this journey and you decided to join me.
As founder, I am elated that you have chosen to continue following my writing. Your support—financial or simply by reading and sharing my posts with others—mean the world to me. It tells me that you value my work and commitment to telling human stories and to truth, as well as the uniqueness of my voice and perspective.
By the way, it was indeed a banner award-winning year. I received two first place Salute To Excellence Awards in column writing from the National Association of Black Journalists, one for columns in the large newspaper category, and the other for the small newspaper category. I also received a first-place award for column writing in the large newspapers category from two other prominent journalism organizations: The Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Lisagor Award; and the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors Award. Finally, I received third and second place awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Award.
But the greatest award I could receive is your continued support and faith in me as a writer. Please know that I do not take the investment of your time and your commitment as a reader for granted.
Your support is the wind beneath my wings. Proof positive that there are still those who value this craft called writing and its practitioners who labor not for money, but for the joy of this calling and the chance to make a difference.
It has been a great year. But I am excited for 2024 and plans to increase the amount and breadth of my storytelling, which will include the launch of a new FountainWorks Substack in addition to the continuation of 50 Cent A Word. The FountainWorks Substack (See note below) will feature the work of up-and-coming as well as established writers as a platform for diverse voices and stories often missed by the Mainstream American Press. Please stay tuned for our exciting launch.
I am equally excited about the opportunity to continue to write my column and also occasional special projects as long-form narratives with multimedia features, including photos and video. In 2024, that work will include an occasional series, “Letters To My Son: A Father’s Wish”; “Searching For Joseph: A Reporter’s Quest to Learn the Fate Of A ‘Crack Baby’ 30 Years Later”; “American Sundown: The Dark Secret Of Forbidden Towns”; and a traveling multimedia exhibit and lecture series on my Fulbright year in Ghana. And that’s just for starters!
I also want to say a very special thanks to all of our paid subscribers and especially our founding members. Your financial commitment supports not only my writing but also enables my reporting, and, frankly, my sustainability as an independent journalistic voice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I pray my note finds you well and in good spirits. Again, thank you so much for your support. Happy New Year!
Peace & Blessings,
JOHN
NOTE: Just fyi, the forthcoming FountainWorks Substack is the online publishing arm of FountainWorks NFP, a federally tax-exempt not-for-profit organization focused on telling the untold stories of marginalized or underrepresented people like the stories of Jelani Day; the Unforgotten 51; Hear Africa Calling; Invasion of Faith; People of Accra; and many other stories and forthcoming independent journalism projects in print, multimedia and film as well as essays and columns by others in the FountainWorks team. Again, FountainWorks will feature the work of other independent writers. (All contributions to FountainWorks NFP are tax-exempt.)
JOHN W. FOUNTAIN BIOGRAPHY
A native son of Chicago’s West Side, John Wesley Fountain is an award-winning columnist, journalist, professor, publisher and author of “True Vine: A Young Black Man’s Journey of Faith, Hope and Clarity”; and “Dear Dad: Reflections on Fatherhood.” A tenured full professor of journalism at Roosevelt University since 2007, he wrote for 13 years a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times. As a journalist, Fountain has chronicled the story of murder for more than 30 years, mostly in Chicago. He was a 2021-22 Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, where taught at the University of Ghana at Legon and conducted a research project: “Africa Calling: Portraits of Black Americans Drawn to the Motherland”
He was previously a professor of journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degree in communications, and is a graduate of Providence-St. Mel School, Chicago.
He has won numerous journalism awards over a nearly 40-year journalism career and is author of five books, including his latest, “Soul Cries: In Black & White and Shades of Gray. “He is a frequent guest commentator on radio and television.
