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Fernanda Santos



Real Fiction Radio Broadcast: October 28, 2020 12 p.m. ET on WERA-FM 96.7 Arlington, VA


First in a Real Fiction series on Affordable Housing and Homelessness






Fernanda Santos' recent article WITHOUT A NET in the New York Times Magazine addresses the complicated issue of elderly homeless. Lack of affordable housing in many US cities is a long standing challenge. WITHOUT A NET is eye-opening, engaging journalism with a focus on an under-represented population: Seniors who find themselves without a home for the first time in their lives.

Fernanda Santos is an immigrant, mother and writer who believes in the transformative power of a well-told story. She is a Southwest Borderlands Initiative professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which she joined in 2017 after a long career in newspapers, including 12 years at The New York Times. Her first book, “The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots,” received the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award for Best First Nonfiction Book. She is currently at work on a memoir.


Fernanda is a board member of the Arizona Latino Media Association; a member of the advisory board for Migratory Notes, an immigration newsletter; a creative consultant in the musical “¡Americano!”, based on the life of an Arizona Dreamer; and vice president of The Sauce Foundation, created in memory of her husband to raise money for pancreatic cancer research and journalism scholarships at Cronkite.

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