Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer is an American writer, award-winning journalist, humanitarian, and mountaineer, known for his writings about the outdoors and his mastery of reportorial narrative. His father introduced him to mountaineering at age eight and after graduating from Hampshire College in 1976, Krakauer spent the next two decades climbing mountains all over the world. In 1996, he climbed Mt. Everest, becoming the only climber on his team of five to survive their descent from the summit, after a fatal storm struck. The incident inspired his 1997 book Into Thin Air, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Meanwhile, his 1996 book, Into the Wild, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years. In 1999, the Academy of Arts and Letters awarded Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature to honor his exceptional writing and investigative journalism. Under the Banner of Heaven, a study of religious fundamentalism in the American West, and Where Men Win Glory, a profile of professional football player, turned army-combatant, Pat Tillman, followed in 2003 and 2009, respectively. Krakauer’s most recent book Three Cups of Deceit, published in 2011, investigates alleged fabrications and fraud surrounding Nobel Prize nominee Greg Mortensen. A fearless and adventurous reporter, Krakauer has continued to push boundaries through his writings in publications such as Outside, GQ, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Smithsonian, and Byliner.com, where he currently contributes.