Background
Risen grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, graduated from Brown University in 1977, and received a master's degree in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1978. He is now an investigative reporter for The New York Times, where he has worked since 1998. Risen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2006 for his stories about President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. He was also a member of The New York Times reporting team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for coverage of 9/11 and terrorism. Risen has written three books: Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War (Basic Books) (Judy Thomas, co-author) 1998; The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Final Showdown with the KGB (Random House) (Milt Bearden, co-author) 2003; and State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (The Free Press) 2006. State of War was a New York Times bestseller. In 2007, Risen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Read more about this topic: James Risen
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