When the 98th Academy Awards nominations were announced in January, one title caught the attention of many Alabamians: “The Alabama Solution.”
Co-producing the HBO documentary — which explores the state’s prison system through the perspectives of incarcerated people — is Beth Shelburne, a graduate of UAB’s English Master of Arts program and a Birmingham-based investigative journalist.
“I’ve just always been a curious person,” Shelburne said. “Even as a child, I was asking, ‘Why is the sky blue?’ ‘Why is the grass green?’ ‘Why are we doing this?’ Constantly pushing back against authority and questioning everything. I think that’s something that is in every journalist’s DNA.”
Shelburne didn’t follow a traditional path to graduate school. After majoring in mass communications and journalism as an undergraduate, she spent more than 20 years in television news, including investigative reporting, before feeling called toward something different.
“TV news wasn’t the long-form narrative journalism I really wanted to do, which is on the page, in the written word,” she said. “What I’m drawn to as a reader is long-form narrative nonfiction and literary journalism — The New Yorker cover to cover each week and The New York Times Magazine on Sundays.”
She added, “I recognized in myself the ability to create that kind of work, and I found a way to pursue it as a writer and journalist through the master’s program at UAB.”
While studying narrative nonfiction and literary journalism, Shelburne also took several fiction workshops that allowed her to stretch creatively and build confidence in her writing.
After leaving her news career in 2019, she began pursuing independent projects — instructing classes at UAB, teaching at the Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop, launching a podcast, Earwitness, and embarking on what would eventually become the “The Alabama Solution.”
The film has taken her across the country for community screenings and speaking engagements. “Even though the story is set in Alabama, it’s really a story about America,” she said. “It’s an American story. It’s an American problem. I think a lot of people recognize their own story and their own struggles in the film.”
As for her Oscar-night plans, Shelburne said she’s simply grateful to be part of the experience. She’ll attend the ceremony and looks forward to celebrating with everyone involved in the project, acknowledging that the occasion feels “bittersweet” given the film’s difficult themes.
For those just starting out in journalism or investigative reporting, Shelburne offered this advice: “As students, we often feel insecure and like we don’t have the answers, or we don’t know what we want to do. But I think we all carry internal wisdom that can be a good guide.”
She continued, “No matter what genre you write in, listening to the world around you can really bear fruit. Remain open to what is happening around you, and if you’re drawn to something that doesn’t feel right — or something that does feel right, something positive in the world that needs to be celebrated or explored — follow your instincts.”
