Katherine Boo

Katherine Boo is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and nonfiction author, who has written extensively on poverty, inequality, and the power of storytelling to amplify the unheard stories of marginalized people. Boo’s journalistic style combines rigorous research, on-the-ground reporting, vivid storytelling, and concise language to uncover injustice and the effect of institutional issues on individuals’ lives. Her work brings to life unknown and hidden realities that have profound implications for society and policy.

Boo rose to fame with the publication of her first nonfiction book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which was published in 2012. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is the remarkable story of a slum located in the shadows of Mumbai's glittering skyscrapers, and its inhabitants' struggles to rise up and out of poverty. Drawing on three years of reporting in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement next to the luxurious hotels of the city’s business district, Boo paints a vivid portrait of the complex realities of global inequality. The book was widely acclaimed, and was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction.

After the success of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Boo has continued to write about the secrecy and injustice in the lives of the poor and dispossessed. Her second book, The Nothing That Is Everything: Stories from the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, was published in 2014 and chronicles four years of reporting from various locales exploring the lives of those living in the margins of society.

In 2016, Boo was the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, in recognition of her pioneering work in investigative journalism and her dedication to uncovering the unspoken stories behind inequality. The same year, her third book, Changing the World in Your Own Backyard: How to Make a Difference Right Where You Are, was also released. This book seeks to empower readers to make meaningful social change in their own communities, and presents a clear step-by-step guide to doing so.

In addition to her nonfiction work, Boo is also the executive editor of The New Yorker magazine, overseeing the magazine’s reporting and editing. In 2017, Boo was also appointed as the Unbound Philanthropy Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard’s Kennedy School, developing a curriculum to prepare the next generation of investigative journalists.

Katherine Boo stands out as one of the most influential journalists and nonfiction authors of our time. Through her powerful reporting and story-telling, she has shed light on global inequality and exposed injustice in a way that few writers have been able to. Her work has not only won her the Pulitzer Prize, but more importantly, it has brought the stories of marginalized people out of the shadows and into the public consciousness.