On his application to get into journalism school at New York City’s prestigious Columbia University, DW Gibson said he wanted to be the next Studs Terkel, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning career included “Working,” an oral history of working people.

Gibson’s doing it now, but with a different twist.

“Not Working” will be the title of the book he writes upon completing a cross-country road trip with boyhood friend MJ Sieber, who runs a theater company in Seattle. They are collaborating on a companion film about people they meet, all over this land, who have lost jobs in the Great Recession.

Part of the time, they will be accompanied by mutual friend and playwright Mallery Avidon. She already has contributed haikus on folks they’ve encountered in California and Nevada. One example: “Sandra’s eye wilted/ Home Care Nurse one week notice/ She is fifty-six.”

Read more at The Salt Lake Tribune