Sul Ross State University recently appointed Sidney Balman, Jr., a Pulitzer-nominated war correspondent and awarded author, as its new writer-in-residence.

Balman will teach journalism, creative writing, and communications courses, and help promote Sul Ross as an arts hub in West Texas. He will also serve as faculty sponsor to student publications, working with undergraduates and graduates via “The Skyline” newspaper and “The Sage” literary journal. He will continue with his writing career, which includes journalism and fiction.

Balman, a fourth generation Texan who was raised in Dallas, appeared at Front Street Books in Alpine two years ago on a national book tour for “Seventh Flag,” the first novel in a trilogy tracing the arc of radicalism in America through the experiences of two families in Dell City. His stop in Alpine led to an initial invitation to serve as a visiting professor this year at Sul Ross, capped by President Pete Gallego’s appointment as Writer-in-Residence.

Balman says he hopes to organize a West Texas Writers’ conference and award at Sul Ross in the spring of 2022.

Balman, a graduate of Vanderbilt University with an advanced degree from American University in Washington, D.C., began his 20-year daily reporting career as a crime reporter for the “Dallas Times Herald,” and ended it after a decade as the diplomatic and national security correspondent for United Press International, at the time one of the largest global news organizations. During his tenure at UPI, he covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and traveled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions. He received a Pulitzer nomination for his coverage of the Balkan wars.