03:37 PM CDT on Friday, April 14, 2006

Dallas Morning News reporter Doug Swanson and photojournalist Michael Mulvey are embedded near An Najaf, Iraq, with the 4th Infantry Division, which is based in Fort Hood, Texas. They are documenting their experiences with regular postings to the Dispatches from Iraq blog.

E-mail them at dispatches@dallasnews.com.

Following are short biographies of the two journalists.

Doug Swanson

Doug Swanson

Doug J. Swanson, 52, is a staff writer in the Projects Department of The Dallas Morning News, where he has worked since 1982. He has also worked at the Miami Herald, the Dallas Times Herald and the Sun-Herald of Biloxi, Miss. Doug is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and was a 1999 Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 1981. He was written five novels, one of which won the John Creasey Award from the British Crime Writers Association. Swanson is married to Susan Rogers. They have two children. He lives in Fort Worth and Fayetteville, Ark.

Michael Mulvey

Michael Mulvey

Michael Mulvey, 38, has been a staff photographer with The Dallas Morning News since March 1997. He was the Dallas-based contract photographer for the Reuters news agency before that, and he has also worked for The Boston Globe, The Associated Press, The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia and The Bryan-College Station Eagle.  Most recently, he was part of the award-winning team covering the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Michael is a native Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M University with a bachelor of science degree in journalism. Michael is also a former member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and was a photographer for A&M’s student newspaper, The Battalion.