Eliza Griswold

Eliza Griswold is an acclaimed American author and poet, best known for her intense investigative journalism and her advocacy for human rights. She has authored several books, most notably Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America and The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam, both of which have been published to critical and popular acclaim.

Born in New York City in 1978, Eliza earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and her master’s degree from Duke Divinity School. After starting her professional career as a policy adviser in the Department of Justice, she soon transitioned to journalism, specifically reportage and investigative writing. In 2000, she was hired as a reporter for The New Republic, and two years later, she joined the staff of the Financial Times.

In 2006, Eliza made the leap to freelance writing and began contributing feature pieces to The New York Times Magazine and The Atlantic. Her early long-form stories investigated the intertwined ranks of terrorism, law enforcement, and the fight against organized crime in Colombia. From there, Eliza focused on topics such as international justice, the geopolitical implications of pipeline construction in Turkey, and female genital mutilation in Nigeria.

In 2010, Eliza’s first book, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam, was published. Combining personal memoir with investigative journalism and deep reportage, the book explores the implications of religious differences in some of the world’s most volatile regions, most notably Nigeria and Sudan. In 2012, The Tenth Parallel received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

To date, Eliza’s most acclaimed work is Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America. The book draws upon years of Griswold’s field reporting to document the catastrophic consequences of fracking in a rural Pennsylvania community. By tracing the reverberations of fracking on one family in particular, Eliza’s book demonstrates the lengths to which corporate interests will go to increase their profits, regardless of the damage they may cause.

Not content to simply write about world issues, Eliza has also taken an active role in foreign policy, particularly in the United States’ relationship with Africa. She was a visiting fellow and senior policy advisor at the International Crisis Group, and was a Fellow-in-Residence at New York University's Center on International Cooperation. Additionally, she was on the board of directors for the Mayibuye African History Archive as well as a Global Ambassador for World Vision.

Thanks to her visceral, candid writing and her commitment to human rights, Eliza Griswold has become one of the most respected authors of our time. Her stories inspire readers to consider the implications of global injustices, and to fight for fundamental human rights and environmental justice.