Bio

Journalism

Austen Erblat began his journalism career writing and editing for his college paper, the Florida Atlantic University Press, first on a volunteer basis, and then getting full time gigs there as news editor and managing editor.

As an intern at Defenders of Wildlife, he contributed a few articles for their print publication, Defenders. He also wrote and edited for a local online music website, Soundbite Magazine.

Austen’s worked as a news reporter at the Pulitzer Prize-winning South Florida Sun Sentinel, where he covered local politics, breaking news, and other issues across South Florida from 2017 until 2022, when he was laid off, along several other colleagues. Some of the articles he has written at the Sun Sentinel have been picked up by the Associated Press, Seattle Times, WSVN, South Florida’s NPR affiliate WLRN, and several other outlets.

He has freelanced for WhoWhatWhy, where he wrote breaking news and analysis articles on state, national, and global political issues. Some of those articles are then posted on Salon.com. He has also freelanced for The Forward, South Florida Gay News, and Debt.com.

As a volunteer, Austen has judged various high school journalistm contests and edited college journalism students' work, as well as contributed to MuckRock’s “Use of Force Policy” project.

Music

In addition to my career in journalism, I am a professional, part time musician. I play drums and percussion in the Joel Da Silva Band, a blues, soul and Americana band and am available for live gigs, studio recording, and drum lessons.

I have performed live and recorded with a number of other artists — a comprehensive list can be found here.

I teache private drum lessons to beginning and intermediate drum students of all ages.

Contact information and social media

For sensitive matters related to my job as a reporter — if you’re a source that would like to contact me with a relatively secure and easy-to-use service — I can be reached through the mobile app Signal by calling or texting 954-599-8709 or by sending an email to AustenErblat@ProtonMail.com (it is recommended you create and use a ProtonMail account as well).

For leads on jobs, freelance story tips, music-related or other non-sensitive matters, you can email me at austenerblat@gmail.com.

My Twitter and Instagram usernames are both @AustenErblat. My public Facebook page can be found at Facebook.com/AustenErblatWriter and my LinkedIn can be found at LinkedIn.com/in/AustenErblat.