Trading words for dollars was one of my childhood dreams. That dream became reality in 2008 when I started The Word Trade as a project for an independent study class at UNC Charlotte. Today, I work full time as a independent journalist.

Some current and former clients include The Huffington Post, Charlotte magazine, the Carolina Weekly Newspapers, Creative Loafing, Crossroads Charlotte, The Mecklenburg Times, Qcitymetro.com, Skirt! Magazine, The Charlotte Observer, UNC Charlotte’s alumni magazine, and University City Magazine.

While I regularly write op-ed pieces for Creative Loafing‘s CLog blog, most of my work is journalistic and ranges from covering everyday news to ongoing investigative work into water quality issues near two unlined, high-hazard coal ash ponds.

I also covered the locally famous, month-long Jinwright tax evasion trial for Qcitymetro.com. Several of those articles were picked up by The Charlotte Observer and I was interviewed by WFAE, an NPR affiliate, about the case from the courthouse parking lot. (Listen here.) A narrative I wrote about the Jinwrights’ rise and fall was in the May 2011 issue of Charlotte magazine. (Read it here, and listen to the ‘Charlotte Talks’ broadcast I participated in that same month on the topic here.)

Currently, I’m covering Occupy Charlotte for Creative Loafing. Look for those stories, and others, in the clips section of this site. On Nov. 8, ‘Charlotte Talks’ invited me back to talk about this world-wide movement’s branch in the Queen City. Listen here.

In my free time I love to read, hike, travel and garden.

More:

Review some of my published clips.

Follow me on Twitter @RhiFionn.

Connect on LinkedIn.

I’m a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Society of Environmental Journalists and I am the current treasurer for the Greater Charlotte Society of Professional Journalists.