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“Awesome’ is the best way to describe Lovewell’s special report on the Georges Bank fisheries. Comprehensive, with great photos too.”
-- 2007 Judges comments when they gave Mr. Lovewell a first place for environmental reporting; and a first place for editorial special section at the New England Press Association’s annual journalism contest. Comments refer to a a special section on the state of the fisheries, published by the Vineyard Gazette on Sept. 23, 2005. Mark was the sole journalist who wrote and photographed the special section.
--In awarding a first place for editorial supplement or special section, Judges wrote: “This section on the near collapse of the cod fishing industry is a real contribution to environmental reporting and to the community. The stories presented are incisive and compelling and they are organized in a way that addressed the many issues in quite coherent way. The photographs are nicely done and the layout is first rate. Bravo.”
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Mark Alan Lovewell, 57, has written on Martha’s Vineyard since 1978. Prior to living on Martha’s Vineyard he worked for the daily newspaper New York Post as an editorial assistant. While in college he wrote and did research at the South Street Seaport Museum. He loves the sea and has worked as a merchant sailor. He has traveled the seas as a crewman, a passenger and as a journalist. He crossed the Pacific, sailed through the Panama Canal and traveled the waters of Northern Europe. A few years ago he flew to China searching for the New England bay scallop.
Since 1979, he has committed his professional writing career to working full-time at the community weekly Vineyard Gazette. He began those first years in production and later moved into a position as a full-time reporter. He published his first story in the Gazette in 1980 and has been writing there ever since. He writes the full gamut of news from late-breaking, written over night, to projects that take months to complete. He writes one of the Island’s oldest columns: With the Fishermen, started in 1925 by the late Joseph Chase Allen. And true to Mr. Allen’s intent, Mr. Lovewell stays committed to focusing on the commercial fishermen and the important role they play in the spirit that drives this community.
In his 35-year career as a writer, he has freelanced for a number of publications and met quite a few journalists. Writing is a craft requiring practice, just like playing music requires time with an instrument. Both hope for an audience. He has written for big and small publications; including a few that no longer are around: like the SoHo Weekly in lower Manhattan, and the alternative weekly newspaper of Martha’s Vineyard: The Grapevine.
And with good humor, he is probably the only journalist who can make so extreme a claim to have worked with the best and worst print journalists: from, Henry Beetle Hough, the late publisher of the Vineyard Gazette to Rupert Murdoch, the past publisher of the New York Post. He has worked with quite a few editors and dozens of reporters.
He was first listed in Marquis Who's Who in 2005.
- 2007, he wrote six articles and provided photographs for the Maine published monthly Commercial Fisheries News. The articles are about the Vineyard commercial fishermen and their efforts to reinvent themselves in changing times.
- He has received a number of awards from the New England Press Association now renamed the New England Press and Newspaper Association. In February of 2010, he received a first place for a history story on the restoration of an old catboat. At the February 2007 convention held at the Park Plaza in Boston, Mr. Lovewell received two first place writing awards from the association. He received a first place in environmental reporting for a special section he wrote and photographed on the state of Georges Bank fishery. The special section which ran in the fall of 2005 also won a first place as a special editorial section. The judges wrote of the supplement: “Awesome’ is the best way to describe Lovewell’s special report on the Georges Bank fisheries. Comprehensive, with great photos too. Kudos to the Vineyard Gazette for opening up the paper for this super effort.”
- 1993, he won a first place for environmental reporting from the New England Press Association for a trip he did to Georges Bank. It was a state of the fisheries project. Also in that year he won and shared a first place for a spot news story on the grounding of the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) off Cuttyhunk. He also shared a first place general news with two other writers for a general news story.
- An article with photographs appeared in the International photography magazine Hasselblad Forum in 1990. He was featured in Vineyard Style Magazine, in the spring of 2002. The article included a photography spread and was written by the magazine’s editor John Budris.
- He participated in the book An Insider’s Guide to Cape Cod and the Islands, edited by Greg O’Brien, by collecting stories and writing about Cuttyhunk, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The book was published by The Stephen Greene Press, distributed by Viking Penquin Inc. in 1988.
- Four of his stories appear in Vineyard Gazette Reader, An Anthology of the best of the Island newspaper, 1970-1995, edited by Richard Reston and Tom Dunlop; published by the Vineyard Gazette, 1996.
- He has written fiction, The Weigh-In, a short story for the book Fishing the Vineyard, paintings by Ray Ellis and edited by Ed Jerome, © 2000, Compass Publishing, Savannah, GA.
Education: He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in journalism from Empire State College, State University of New York in 1978.
Other Publications of note:
Sea History, a magazine of the National Maritime Historical Society, Autumn 2003, photographs and article written about woodcarver: Joseph Uranker.
Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society’s membership publication Messenger, for the last several years.
Martha's Vineyard Magazine and Best Read Guide, owned by the Vineyard Gazette, from 1980.
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