Peter Hessler
| Peter Hessler | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 14, 1969 |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Princeton University Mansfield College, Oxford |
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards |
MacArthur Fellowship Kiriyama Prize Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction |
| Spouse | Leslie T. Chang |
Peter Hessler (born June 14, 1969) is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of three acclaimed books about China and has contributed numerous articles to The New Yorker and National Geographic, among other publications. In 2011, Hessler received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in recognition and encouragement of his "keenly observed accounts of ordinary people responding to the complexities of life in such rapidly changing societies as Reform Era China."
Peter Hessler grew up in Columbia, Missouri and graduated from Hickman High School in 1988. He went on to study English and creative writing at Princeton University, where, during his junior year, he took John McPhee's renowned writing seminar, which Hessler describes as a "revelation." Hessler graduated in 1992 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study English language and literature at the University of Oxford.
The summer before graduating from Princeton, Hessler worked as a researcher for the Kellogg Foundation in southeastern Missouri. He wrote an extensive ethnography about a small town called Sikeston, which was published in the Journal for Applied Anthropology.
Hessler joined the Peace Corps in 1996 and was sent to China for two years to teach English at Fuling Teachers College, a teachers college in Fuling, a small city near the Yangtze River in Chongqing city. He later worked in China as freelance writer for numerous publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the South China Morning Post, and National Geographic. Hessler joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2000 and served as foreign correspondent for the same publication until 2007.
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