Katie Jane Fernelius is a journalist and producer living in New Orleans.
Journalism
Katie covers the local government for Verite News. She is a member of the Deep South Today Union.
She has worked as an independent journalist since 2016. She’s reported for The Guardian, The Appeal, The Nation, Popula, Current Affairs, The Assembly, In These Times, Scalawag, Africa Is a Country, The New Republic, Atlas Obscura, INDY Week, and elsewhere.
She’s written multiple magazine-length features. Through her reporting, she’s investigated sheriff’s offices and megachurches, interviewed controversial politicians and striking migrants, and delved into complex systems, from the economies of dumps to the bureaucracies of probation and parole.
Radio
Katie is a founding member of Sidewalk Radio, a cooperatively-owned production company in New Orleans. They currently produce the series A Field Guide to Gay Animals with Canadaland.
She has had a hand in producing over 75 episodes of radio, including a documentary feature for the BBC World Service and Sundance Institute about a private city in Lagos, Nigeria.
Recent projects have included being a story editor on the 8-episode Audible original Summer of ‘85, and helping with development production on a 4-episode series about the District Attorney’s office in New Orleans for The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast.
She produced the first four seasons (35 episodes) of the Quartz Obsession podcast. She’s also produced eight episodes for the Southern Foodways Alliance’s podcast Gravy. And she was the senior audio producer on the 8-episode Investigation Discovery series Why Can’t We Talk About Amanda’s Mom?, which topped the True Crime charts during its run.
She’s produced Commonplace, the Knight Foundation’s On View, and the New School’s New Histories podcasts. She also helped organize and curate the 2018 season of Audio Under the Stars.
Etc.
She received a Fulbright scholarship and lived in Lagos, Nigeria. After that, she worked as the research and programming associate of the Living History Archive at Duke University. Later, she worked as a writing coach at Delgado Community College.