Who is Ed Odeven? Ed is a Sahuaro 1992 grad and former newspaper contributor. Ed wrote for Mountain Shadows, Sahuaro’s print edition, which was published monthly. Ed started attending Sahuaro as a sophomore when he moved to Tucson from New Jersey in the summer of ’89.

He decided to start writing for the newspaper his senior year when given the choice to take a literature class or the newspaper class. When asked what his favorite part about writing for the paper was, he responded “…there was a good variety and it was fun.” (Referring to different articles he got to work on).

What made Odeven gain an interest in writing? “…it was something I enjoyed doing at a young age.” Who would’ve known this would lead to writing success in the future! He also “…enjoyed the more creative arts” which played a big role in his writing as well. Ed likes to write about a variety of topics such as sports history, big events, and personality profiles of people. He claims that “…every person has an interesting story.” I couldn’t agree more.

After high school, he carried on his love for writing. He attended ASU for 3 and a half years and Pima Community College for 3 and a half years as well, where he wrote Pima newspaper, The Aztec Press. He did this for 2 of the years he attended the school while also taking some fun classes including communications and news writing classes.

Further into his career, Ed moved to Japan and wrote for The Japan Times. He also started a project in 2015 to release an eBook and it has been released this year. The book is titled Going 15 Rounds With Jerry Izenberg: A collection Of Interviews With The Legendary Columnist. About his book release, Odeven says, “Jerry Izenberg’s career as a newspaper reporter and columnist spans generations. From the early 1950s to the present day, he has written about championship teams and Olympic icons, baseball and football superstars and boxing legends. Along the way he became one of the best American sports columnists.”

It is available on Barnes & Noble’s website for purchase!