Welcome! My name is Richard Webner, and I’m a journalist and fiction writer. I cover the transportation beat for the San Antonio Express-News – if you want to know why every effort to run commuter trains between San Antonio and Austin has come to grief, I’m your guy. I recently finished my first novel, a work of literary historical fiction set in the apocalyptic days of sixth-century Rome.
I like to let my curiosity guide my reporting. During my thirteen-year odyssey in the newspaper business, I’ve diven deep into issues ranging from the difficulty of spurring economic growth on Chicago’s South Side, high rates of infectious diseases among orcas at Seaworld parks, the city of San Antonio’s response to a deadly flood that swept drivers off a highway access road, and the slave-owning past of the founder of the University of Missouri.
As a freelancer, my byline has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. I’ve won awards from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Missouri Press Association, and have been named the Express-News’ Enterprise Reporter of the Year.
I have a master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri, and a bachelor’s in History from Northwestern University, where I wrote a column for the student newspaper and hosted a radio show dedicated to the career of Prince.
I write fiction whenever I can find time. My novel, Sacred City, is set in Rome during the so-called Dark Ages – an era of violence, privation and decay, but also of startling beauty borne of spiritual rebirth. I’m excited to tell you more about it.
I live in south Austin with my wife, Julianne, the principal oboist for the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and our two children. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and I still consider myself a Midwesterner at heart.
