Dean Nelson

Dean Nelson is the founder and director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. He has written for The New York Times, the Boston Globe, San Diego Magazine, Westways, Sojourners, and several other publications. He is also the founder and host of the annual Writer’s Symposium By The Sea, where he has interviewed great writers for more than 30 years.

He has traveled throughout the world covering stories of human interest—India, where he wrote about the slums of Bombay; Kosovo, where he interviewed and wrote about victims of terrorism; Tanzania, where he wrote about members of the Black Panther Party who live in exile; Tibet, where he wrote about religious persecution; Central America, where he wrote about poverty and contaminated water; New Orleans, where he wrote about the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Haiti, where he wrote about the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake; Iceland, where he wrote about the literary scene there; Croatia, where he wrote about a part of Europe that is trying to reinvent itself after the breakup of the Soviet Union; Rome, where he wrote about the Canonization of Mother Teresa, and elsewhere. He has covered the stunning, the moving, the mysterious, the tragic, the amusing, and the absurd.

His 2019 book with HarperCollins is Talk to Me: How To Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro. His book on the seven sacraments, God Hides in Plain Sight: How to Find the Sacred in a Chaotic World, was published by Brazos Press in 2009. His most recent books are Talking to Writers: The Craft of Fiction, and Talking to Writers: The Craft of Nonfiction, published 2025 by Bloomsbury.