John P. Huston was born into a newspaper family in Ottumwa, Iowa -- the Twin Peaks of the Midwest.

Before being stung by the journalism bug, however, he immersed himself in music -- learning to play multiple instruments, writing songs and picking up a few recording tricks along the way. By college, he’d already played in and recorded several bands.

He attended the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 2000. There, he picked up the pen and reporter’s notebook, writing for Notre Dame Magazine and the student newspaper The Observer, as well as taking internships at the South Bend Tribune and his hometown Ottumwa Courier.

Upon graduation, Huston moved to Chicago to work for Pioneer Press Newspapers. Over the years, he’s focused mainly on Chicago’s western suburbs, like Oak Park, Maywood, Melrose Park; writing about local politics and corruption, crime, poverty and education.

His work earned him several statewide and national journalism awards. More information on his credits is on the resume page.

At the same time, Huston was still writing and recording music. He released several solo albums under the name Dark Yellow before starting the rock band The Grackles, which toured the country several times and released two CDs.

He now performs in the acoustic duo The Pawners’ Society.

With the age of digital journalism, Huston was finally able to combine his journalism passion with his sound engineering background. He regularly films and edits audio and video for his work blog, The News Peg, and won Pioneer Press’ first multimedia award in 2006.

He is now working on his first book of fiction.