Lawrence Wright

This article is about the writer. For other uses, see Lawrence Wright (disambiguation).

Lawrence Wright (born August 2, 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. Wright is best known as the author of the 2006 nonfiction book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

Background and education

Wright graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School (Dallas, Texas) in 1965 and, in 2009, was inducted into Woodrow's Hall of Fame. He is a graduate of Tulane University, and taught at the American University in Cairo in Egypt for two years.

Career

The Looming Tower

Wright is the author of six books, but is best known for his 2006 book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. A quick bestseller, The Looming Tower was awarded the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and is frequently referenced by media pundits as an excellent source of background information on Al Qaeda and the September 11 attacks. The book's title is a phrase from the Quran: "Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower," which Osama bin Laden quoted three times in a videotaped speech seen as directed to the 9/11 hijackers.

Other Projects

Among Wright's other books is Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory (1994), about the Paul Ingram false memory case. On June 7, 1996, Wright testified at Ingram's pardon hearing.

Wright also co-wrote the screenplay for the film The Siege (1998), which tells the story of a terrorist attack in New York City that leads to curtailed civil liberties and rounding up of Arab-Americans.

A script that Wright originally wrote for Oliver Stone was turned instead into a well-regarded Showtime movie, Noriega: God's Favorite (2000).

A documentary featuring Wright, "My Trip to Al-Qaeda", premiered on HBO in September 2010. It was based on his journeys and experience in the Middle East during his research for The Looming Tower. "My Trip to Al-Qaeda" covers topics ranging from the current state of the regime in Saudi Arabia to the historic underpinnings of 9/11.

Wright also plays the keyboard.

Bibliography

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Books

• City Children, Country Summer: A Story of Ghetto Children Among the Amish. Scribner. 1979. ISBN 978-0-684-16144-0. 
• In the New World: Growing up in America, 1964-1984. Alfred A. Knopf. 1987. ISBN 978-0-394-75964-7. 
• Saints and Sinners. Alfred A. Knopf. 1993. ISBN 978-0-679-76163-1. 
• Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory. Vintage Books. 1994. ISBN 978-0-679-75582-1. 
• Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are. John Wiley & Sons. 1999. ISBN 978-0-471-29644-7. 
• God's Favorite: A Novel. Simon and Schuster. 2000. ISBN 978-0-684-86810-3. 
• The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Alfred A. Knopf. 2006. ISBN 978-0-375-41486-2. 

Articles

• Wright, Lawrence (September 20, 2010). "The Talk of the Town: Comment: Intolerance". The New Yorker 86 (28): 47–48. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/09/20/100920taco_talk_wright. Retrieved 21 December 2011. 

External links

• Wright on NPR
• The Looming Tower Reviews at Metacritic
• AuthorViews video interview about The Looming Tower
• Audio of Paul Ingram Pardon Hearing
• Biography at lawrencewright.com
• Lawrence Wright articles at Byliner
• Lawrence Wright Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
• Reporting The Bin Laden Beat, Journalist Lawrence Wright Knows More About Al Qaeda's Leader Than Many CIA Operatives AUSTIN Sept. 9, 2007