We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nile Fortner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nile, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Nile Fortner works as a South Florida community columnist writer for various publications and platforms. Nile, whose written work has been featured in Sun-Sentinel, MIA/Legacy, and more helps to bring awareness, understanding, news, and features on people, interests, businesses, and events. He believes to learn about people is to learn about the community and to learn about the community is to learn about yourself. Over the years, he’s learned so much about himself, the people around him, the areas, and so much.
Nile, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’ve been a South Florida native all my life. I’ve always had an interest in writing, reading, and stories such as reading comic books, novels, watching movies, and I enjoyed all kinds of forms of storytelling. I took that lifelong interest in stories and decided to apply it to reality by finding the balance between storytelling and stories in the South Florida community and culture. I took my interest in writing while wanting to apply it to the community.
I then started writing for fun as a hobby and while in school, I applied it to trying to help with local news whether it was within the school or out. I did it for years, up until college and university level. I reached out to local publications and platforms to see if I could become a writer helping to bring awareness, understanding, news, and features on people and events.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
There have been a lot of people who’ve helped me and encouraged me along the way. But like anyone, I’ve been told “no” or “not interested” by a lot of publications and websites. At times, I’ve even read and heard a lot worse. But I still pursued trying to be a writer by writing for those who were interested, trying to be a better writer, and realizing that the South Florida community has been good to me and I’d like to be good to it back.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I worked to try and establish my name as a writer by working with these local publications. Sometimes, even going beyond what’s expected of me such as going beyond writing and doing videos and podcasting.
While in school, I’ve also networked with students, and to this day, I still message people I’d like to network with. I also network with some friends who work in Public Relations and tell people what and how I can be beneficial through my craft and studies.
I’d like to believe my reputation as a writer is a good one. People have told and messaged me that they enjoy my work, found it informative, interesting, would like me to write about them or something they believe is of interest, As someone once told me, “People wouldn’t reach out to you to be a writer if they thought you were a bad writer.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nilefortner.wixsite.com/nilefortner
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nile_fortner/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nile.fortner.79
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilefortner/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nile_Fortner
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfP8bRmE3j9saKzRuS-EXrg
Image Credits
Parklander Story (Artist Lori Arbel) Sun-Sentinel’s Boca Times (Story on DJ Marley) Sun Sentinel’s Riverside Times (Artist Elyssa Helfman/Vibrant Art with Elyssa) Miami New Times March 3-9, 2022 (Story on Nadege Green of Black Miami-Dade on Instagram) Sun-Sentinel’s Riverside Times Maxence Doytier of Twenty6North Productions (B Ocean Resort Beach Cleanup Story_