Lawrence Wright | |
|---|---|
 Wright in 2018 | |
| Born | (1947-08-02)August 2, 1947 (age 78) Oklahoma City,Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation | Journalist,Writer |
| Alma mater | Tulane University (BA) American University of Cairo (MA) |
| Notable works | The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2007) |
| Website | |
| LawrenceWright.com | |
Lawrence Wright (born August 2, 1947) is an American writer and journalist, a staffwriter forThe New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at theNew York University School of Law.
Wright is best known as the author of the 2006 nonfiction book,Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.
He is also known for his work with documentarianAlex Gibney, who directed film versions of Wright's one-man show,My Trip to Al-Qaeda, and his bookGoing Clear.
Wright graduated fromWoodrow Wilson High School inDallas, Texas, in 1965 and was inducted into the school'sHall of Fame in 2009.[1] He is a graduate ofTulane University and taught English at theAmerican University in Cairo (from which he was awarded aMaster of Arts inApplied Linguistics in 1969) inEgypt for two years.[2] Wright lives in Austin, Texas.[3]
In 1980 Wright began working for the magazineTexas Monthly and contributed toRolling Stone magazine. In late 1992 he joined the staff ofThe New Yorker.[2]
Wright is the author of six books but is best known for his 2006 publication,The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.[4] A quick bestseller,The Looming Tower was awarded theJ. Anthony Lukas Book Prize,[5] the 2007Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and is frequently referred to by somemedia pundits as being an excellent source of background information onAl Qaeda and theSeptember 11 attacks. The book's title is a phrase from the Quran4:78: "Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower," whichOsama bin Laden quoted three times in a videotaped speech seen as directed to the 9/11 hijackers.[6]
In 2011 Wright wrote a profile of formerScientologistPaul Haggis forThe New Yorker.[7][8]
Starting with Haggis and eventually speaking with 200 current and former Scientologists,[9] Wright's book,Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, was published in 2013. The book contains interviews from current and former Scientologists and examines the history and leadership of the organisation.[9][10] In an interview forThe New York Times, Wright disclosed that he had received "innumerable" letters threatening legal action from lawyers representing theChurch of Scientology and celebrities who were members of it.[9]
The New York Times publishedMichael Kinsley's review of the book, where he wrote: "That crunching sound you hear is Lawrence Wright bending over backward to be fair to Scientology. Every deceptive comparison with Mormonism and other religions is given a respectful hearing. Every ludicrous bit of church dogma is served up deadpan. This makes the book's indictment that much more powerful."[11]
In 2015,Alex Gibney produced a documentary based on Wright's book, titledGoing Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. The film was nominated for sevenEmmy Awards, winning three,[12] and received a 2015Peabody Award "for its detailed documentation of Scientology's history and abuses."[13]
Among Wright's other books areRemembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory (1994), about thePaul Ingramfalse memory case. On June 7, 1996, Wright testified at Ingram's pardon hearing.[citation needed]
His 2020 novel,The End of October, a thriller about a pandemic, was released in April 2020 during theCOVID-19 pandemic,[14] to generally positive reviews.
Wright co-wrote the screenplay for the filmThe Siege (1998), which tells the story of aterrorist attack inNew York City that leads to curtailedcivil liberties and rounding up ofArab-Americans.[15] A script that Wright originally wrote forOliver Stone was turned instead into thedShowtime movie,Noriega: God's Favorite (2000).[citation needed]
A documentary featuring Wright,My Trip to Al-Qaeda, premiered onHBO in September 2010. It was based on his journeys and experiences in the Middle East during his research forThe Looming Tower.[16]My Trip to Al-Qaeda looks atal-Qaeda,Islamist extremism,anti-American sentiment and theU.S. military presence inAfghanistan andIraq and combines Wright's first-person narrative with documentary footage and photographs.[17]
Wright plays thekeyboard in theAustin, Texas,bluescollective WhoDo.[2]
Wright is also a playwright. He has worked on a script over several years concerning the making of the epic filmCleopatra that starredElizabeth Taylor,Richard Burton andRex Harrison. The play is titledCleo and was to have opened September 2017 in Houston, Texas, but was delayed by catastrophic flooding caused byHurricane Harvey. It eventually opened in April 2018.[18]
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Wright doesn't live in Texas—he lives in Austin
