David Grann

David Grann
David Grann at the 2010 Texas Book Festival
Born	David Grann March 10, 1967 (1967-03-10) New York, NY
Nationality	American
Notable work(s)	The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Notable award(s)	Thomas J. Watson Fellowship George Polk Awards
www.davidgrann.com

David Grann (born March 10, 1967, in New York City) is an American literary journalist and best-selling author. He has written about a range of subjects, from New York City's antiquated water supply system to the hunt for giant squid to the U.S. presidential campaign.

His first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was published by Doubleday in February 2009. After its first week of publication, it debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at #4.

Career

Grann graduated from Connecticut College in 1989 with a B.A. in Government. He received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and conducted research in Mexico, where he began his career as a freelance journalist. He received a masters degree in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1993. Primarily interested in fiction, Grann hoped to develop a career as a novelist. His reputation as a "workhorse reporter" has made him a popular journalist who "inspires a devotion in readers that can border on the obsessive."

His journalism career began after he was hired as a copy editor at The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper covering the United States Congress) in 1994. The same year, he earned a masters degree in creative writing from Boston University, where he taught courses in creative writing and fiction. He was named The Hill's executive editor in 1995. He became a senior editor at The New Republic in 1996. He joined The New Yorker in 2003 as staff writer. He was a finalist for the Michael Kelly Award in 2005, and was awarded the 2009 George Polk Award and 2009 Sigma Delta Chi Award for his New Yorker piece "Trial By Fire", which has been described as the first thoroughly documented case of the execution of an innocent man (Cameron Todd Willingham) under the modern American judicial system. Another New Yorker piece, "The Mark of a Masterpiece", was nominated for the 2010 National Magazine Awards for feature writing which honors original, stylish storytelling. The subject of that article, Peter Paul Biro, who Grann portrayed as a forger, lodged a federal defamation lawsuit in United States district court against Grann and his employer, Condé Nast Publications in June 2011. New Yorker editor David Remnick stated "David Grann’s reporting on this story and everything else he does is painstaking in both its attention to the facts and tone. We stand with David Grann and behind the story and believe the suit has no merit."

Grann married television producer Kyra Darnton, daughter of George Polk Awards curator, John Darnton, in 2000. The couple has two children, and as of 2009 resided in New York City.

Other publications

Grann's stories have appeared in several anthologies, including What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, The Best American Crime Writing of 2004 and 2005, and The Best American Sports Writing of 2003 and 2006. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Weekly Standard.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon tells the story of the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett who, in 1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon while looking for the Lost City of Z. For decades, explorers and scientists have tried to find evidence of both his party and the Lost City of Z. More than 100 people perished or disappeared seeking Fawcett. Grann made his own journey into the Amazon, revealing new evidence about how Fawcett died and showing that Z may have indeed existed. The book was optioned by Brad Pitt's Plan B production company and Paramount Pictures.

An anthology of 12 previously published Grann essays The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession was published in March, 2010.

Awards

• Thomas J. Watson Fellowship (1989)
• Michael Kelly award, finalist (2005)
• George Polk Awards (2009)
• Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlist (2009)
• National Magazine Awards, finalist (2010)

Bibliography

Books

• The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (2010)
• The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009)

Articles

• "The Selling of the Scandal", The New Republic, September 28, 1998.
• "The Stasi and the Swan – The last spy story of the cold war." The New Republic, April 19, 1999.
• "Crimetown USA – The city that fell in love with the mob.", The New Republic, July 10, 2000.
• "Giving "The Devil" His Due", The Atlantic Monthly, June, 2001.
• "Which Way Did He Run?", The New York Times Magazine, January 13, 2002.
• "Baseball Without Metaphor", The New York Times Magazine, September 1, 2002.
• "The Old Man and the Gun – Forrest Tucker had a long career robbing banks, and he wasn't willing to retire", The New Yorker, January 27, 2003.
• "The Price of Power", The New York Times Magazine, May 11, 2003.
• "City of Water – Can an intricate and antiquated maze of tunnels continue to sustain New York?", The New Yorker, September 1, 2003.
• "The Brand – How the Aryan Brotherhood became the most murderous prison gang in America", The New Yorker, February 16, 2004.
• "The Squid Hunter – Can Steve O'Shea capture the sea's most elusive creature", The New Yorker, May 24, 2004.
• "Inside Dope – Mark Halperin and the transformation of the Washington establishment", The New Yorker, October 25, 2004.
• "Mysterious Circumstances – The strange death of a Sherlock Holmes fanatic", The New Yorker, December 13, 2004.
• "Stealing Time – What makes Rickey Henderson run?", The New Yorker, September 12, 2005.
• "The Lost City of Z – A quest to uncover the secrets of the Amazon", The New Yorker September 19, 2005.
• "True Crimes – A postmodern murder mystery", The New Yorker, February 11, 2008.
• "The Chameleon – The many lives of Frédéric Bourdin", The New Yorker, August 11, 2008.
• "The Fall – John McCain's choices", The New Yorker, November 17, 2008.
• "Trial by Fire – Did Texas execute an innocent man?", The New Yorker, September 7, 2009.
• "The Mark of a Masterpiece" – The man who keeps finding famous fingerprints on uncelebrated works of art, The New Yorker, July 12 & 19, 2010.
• "A Murder Foretold – Unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy.", The New Yorker, April 4, 2011.

External links

• David Grann, official website
• Murder, madness, obsession, Bookpod audio essay
• Articles by David Grann at The New Yorker