PROFILES
Scratching the Surface To write his new memoir, multimedia journalist and educator Harvey Ovshinsky had to research his own collection at the Bentley—and ultimately ask himself the tough questions he’d been asking others as a journalist for years. By Dan Shine
28 BENTLEY.UMICH.EDU
HARVEY OVSHINSKY LIKES TO JOKE that it took him four
years to write his book. “Two years to write a bad book, and two years to write a good one,” he says. But when he completed his memoir, Scratching the Surface: Adventures in Storytelling (WSU Press, 2021), he says he had an out-of-body experience as he floated above his latest work and his life. He reflected on the many hats he has worn: underground newspaper publisher, writer, radio news director, documentary filmmaker, teacher.
