Knute "Skip" Berger (born December 5, 1953 in Seattle) is an American journalist, writer and editor based in Seattle, Washington, United States. He has written since the 1970s about the culture and history of the Pacific Northwest, and appeared as a host on a public television series.
Berger is a columnist for Crosscut.com, writing under the name "Mossback". He is also Editor-at-Large and a columnist for Seattle magazine, author of Pugetopolis, and former longtime editor of the Seattle Weekly.
His writing focuses on Pacific Northwest subjects including heritage, culture, politics and historic preservation.
Berger writes frequently about World's Fairs, seven of which he has attended, including the Century 21 Exposition in his hometown of Seattle. In 2011, Berger was named "Writer in Residence" at the landmark of the 1962 Century 21 Expo, the Space Needle, in anticipation of the Expo's Fiftieth Anniversary. Commissioned by the owners of the Space Needle, he penned its official history for the anniversary in Space Needle: The Spirit of Seattle, published in 2012.
Television and other media
As part of the partnership between sister organizations Crosscut and KCTS-TV, Berger began hosting the short television series Mossback's Northwest in 2018. In the series, he discusses a part of the Northwest's cultural history.
After the television show, Berger was a commentator on Seattle radio station KUOW-FM and at public forums.
Time capsule
Berger was selected by the Washington State Centennial Commission to install a time capsule beneath the rotunda of the Washington State Capitol.
Regard as an expert
Berger's writing about Seattle has been cited in a work on urban planning in the Pacific Northwest by the American Planning Association, and a work on its social history presented at an Austrian academic conference.
↑Jill Sterrett; Connie P. Ozawa; Dennis Ryan; Ethan Seltzer; Jan Whittington, eds. (2015). Planning the Pacific Northwest. Chicago: American Planning Association. OCLC891608728.
↑Stefan Leonhard Brandt; Michael Fuch, eds. (2018). "Works cited". Space Oddities: Difference and Identity in the American City (Austrian Association for American Studies Conference (41st: 2014: Graz, Austria)). Vienna: LIT Verlag. p.109. OCLC1029034079.
