Euchner is also completing a book called The ABC's of Writing. Building on his experience in colleges and universities -- at institutions such as Yale, Harvard, Holy Cross, and Northeastern -- Euchner offers a sure-fire system to improve writing for high school and college students, journalists and academics, and corporate and nonprofit professionals. The system operates on two levels. First, writers learn basic skills associated with letters of the alphabet; second, they follow a number of exercises and techniques to turn skills into habits. (For a beta version of an upcoming website, see www.theabcsofwriting.com.)

Euchner writes widely for major magazines and newspapers. Recent articles explore the NBA's globalization strategy, the physics of falling off a building, architect Christopher Alexander, the strategy of nonviolent action in politics, and mayor-led school reform. (For a complete online magazine of Euchner's latest writings, see Notes and Comment.)

Euchner's latest books -- both published in 2006 -- explore baseball from its highest to lowest levels. The Last Nine Innings provides a dramatic narrative of the seventh game of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. Little League, Big Dreams looks at the revolution in youth sports through a portrait of the 2005 Little League World Series.

Until June 2004, when he stepped down to satisfy the demands of his writing career, Euchner was the executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In that capacity, Euchner coordinated a wide-ranging research agenda on urban and regional politics and policy, conferences and other events, training programs for public and public service fellowships for graduate and professional students.

Euchner edited the Governing Greater Boston Series, served on numerous advisory committees, and contributed to newspapers and magazines on issues facing the region.

Euchner has written widely on public affairs. His most recent book on politics and policy, coauthored with Stephen McGovern of Haverford College, is Urban Policy Reconsidered: Dialogues the Problems and Prospects of American Cities (2003). That book has won praise for its comprehensive and even-handed approach to complex issues. The book has been praised not only by scholars of urban affairs but also by practitioners as diverse as Michael Dukakis, the three term Massachusetts governor and 1988 presidential nominee, and Steve Goldsmith, the former Indianapolis mayor and domestic policy advisor to George W. Bush.

Euchner’s research has focused on the grassroots level of politics. His book Extraordinary Politics: How Protest and Dissent Are Changing American Democracy (1996) provides a critical analysis of the causes, strategies, tactics, and effects of outsider forms of politics in the U.S. Playing the Field: Why Sports Teams Move and Cities Fight to Keep Them (1993) was the first book to question the economic and political arguments for building sports stadiums.

Euchner has also written widely about national politics. He was a major contributor to the Congressional Guide to the Presidency, which has been called the most authoritative single work ever on the presidency. Sections of this work were gathered together for the book Selecting the President: Washington to Bush (1991), by Charles Euchner with John Anthony Maltese.

Euchner has also taught political science at the College of the Holy Cross, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania.

For three years, Euchner served as a fulltime consultant to the City of Boston, directing a comprehensive planning process for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Prior to entering academe, Euchner was a staff writer for Education Week, the nation’s newspaper of record for elementary and secondary education. At Education Week, Euchner covered the federal government, teachers unions, state education policy, and computers in education.

Euchner received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.