Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

Greg Garrison writes news and feature stories for AL.com, covering religion, Birmingham City Hall, regional culture of the South, civil rights history, state politics, sports and entertainment. He joined The Birmingham News as a staff writer in 1986 and his stories have been published at AL.com since it was founded in 1997. A 1985 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, his awards include a Hearst College Journalism Award, APA Best News Feature, APME Deadline Reporting and APME Sports Sweepstakes Award. At Mizzou, he was a sports editor for Campus Digest covering University of Missouri football and basketball. His syndicated sports column Mizzou Report appeared in more than a dozen newspapers. He joined The Anniston Star in 1985-86, winning 2nd place in the national Cassels Award for religion writing. He covered the visit of Pope John Paul II to New Orleans in 1987, and has done one-on-one, sit-down interviews with newsmakers including Coretta Scott King, Jimmy Carter and Dolly Parton. In the 1970s, Greg and his family were environmental activists who successfully fought the building of a dam on the Meramec River that had been authorized by Congress. Greg worked three summers as a cave tour guide at Onondaga Cave, which would have been flooded by the dam. Greg has written several plays based on his childhood in the Ozarks, including "Cicada Summer," which was produced by Rome High School at the Georgia Thespian Festival in 1992. Email: ggarrison@al.com Call or text: (205) 209-1037