Issac J. Bailey, the local columnist for The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., grew up in St. Stephen, a town with a population of less than 1,000. But the place always seemed full because he was one of 11 children and had an assortment of cousins who lived with our near his immediate family.

He attended a 99 percent black rural high school before attending 94 percent white private Davidson College in North Carolina, where he graduated with a degree in psychology. It was there his writing career began to take off, first as a weekly columnist in the college’s newspaper. He was attracted to the craft to diversify what he perceived to be homogeneous thought in the paper’s pages, and his study of psychology provided him the depth to attack an issue from multiple angles and points-of-view. His hard-hitting, transparent style created a following that continues to this day.

After college and a two-year stint as an intern in Davidson’s college relations office, Bailey moved on to The Sun News as a part-time reporter/calendar clerk/designer. He later became a feature writer, covered city government, and created the newspaper’s first full-time real estate beat before becoming its business editor. In 2000, he also began writing a monthly column that initially focused on the complexity of race.

For the past five years, Bailey has served as the paper’s local columnist, dealing with issues as diverse as real estate and politics to crime and left-lane driving. His life as a stutterer has also helped shape his voice and column by making him empathetic to the plight of others and forcing him to see and experience the world through a unique lens. He has been with the paper for almost 13 years and has won numerous state and national writing awards including those from the S.C. Press Association, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the National Association of Black Journalists and The American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors.

Bailey has been married for almost 12 years to Tracy S. Bailey, Founder and Executive Director of the after-school literacy program “Freedom Readers.” She is also a doctoral student at the University of South Carolina. They met while in high school and have an 8-year-old son and an almost 6-year-old daughter. He released his first book — “Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don’t Eat Watermelon in Front of White People) – in April of 2009.