A salute to Rosette Royale: Writer, editor and general beacon of love and light
Ten years is time enough for a place to become part of who you are, and time enough for you to leave something indelible behind. Especially when love is involved. And wherever Rosette Royale goes, love is somewhere in the mix.
Rosette came to us late in 2004. He went by Timothy XX Burton then. His resume included a creative writing degree from Colby College in Maine and graduate work in fiction at Boston University. He’d grown up bright, gay and black in Washington, D.C., and had spent the last seven years in Provincetown as a marginally employed literary beach bum.
Over his last three years on the Cape, he’d racked up enough clips at the alt-weekly Provincetown Banner to credibly pass as a reporter. And now, he was in Seattle, freelancing around and looking for work he could love. We were getting ready to go weekly and hiring. The pay was low and the work was part-time.
His desk would be a countertop shared with two others in an 11-by-13-foot room. It was the kind of job you had to really want.
After his first interview, we gave him a stack of back issues and asked what could be better. When he returned, the papers were covered with color-coded tabs and Post-it notes, and he was filled with smart and unapologetic opinions. We were wowed.
On his first day at work, he asked to be called Rosette Royale, both in person and in print. Fine, we said. You be who you want to be.
There are few things as beautiful to witness as a person being exactly who they are, day in and day out, without fail. Over the past decade, Rosette has been many things to Real Change: newsroom Zen master, reliable truth teller and universal lover of both words and people.
I’ve seen him perform pagan rituals in resplendent drag as Queen of the Ravenna Ravine and watched him emcee our annual breakfast in a unicorn costume. I’ve seen him tell our vendors that they have forever altered the size of his heart, and that they will always be a part of him.
I’ve seen him win a string of honors for both his weekly reporting and his long-form literary journalism.
In 2008, his epic three-part “Man on the Bridge” compassionately told the story of how system failure led a developmentally delayed, convicted child molester to jump to his death from Aurora Bridge.
That story won him the coveted Society of Professional Journalists national Sigma Delta Chi Award.
In 2012, his four-part “Gravity of Abuse” described an abusive relationship between Brandy, a recovering meth addict, and Richard, a pagan skinhead. Again, Rosette’s unique ability to embrace the outsider without judgment led to something beautiful and extraordinary.
Out of 22 months of interviews, writing and research, he fashioned an unforgettable portrait of struggle and redemption that brought tears to our eyes and another armload of first-place awards.
In recent years, we’ve known Rosette is headed toward bigger things, and that the pull of literary life would propel him to new risks and challenges. We wish him all of the fabulous success he deserves.
Rosette, as a writer, editor and general beacon of love and light, has made Real Change a better paper and a more authentic organization. We’re sad to see him go, and we’re excited for his future. You’ll find some of his best work, and soon enough, news of what’s to come, at rosetteroyale.com.
Rosette Royale. Remember that name. This is a man whose star is rising.