Peter Hessler

{{Infobox writer

| name = Peter Hessler

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1969|06|14|mf=y}}

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| occupation = Writer, journalist, runner

| language = English, Chinese, Egyptian Arabic

| nationality = American

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| alma_mater = Princeton University
Mansfield College, Oxford

| notableworks = {{ubl|River Town|Oracle Bones|Country Driving|Strange Stones}}

| spouse = Leslie T. Chang

| awards = MacArthur Fellowship
Kiriyama Prize
Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction

| ethnicity =

| pseudonym = 何伟 (Hé Wěi) (in China)

| children = 2

}}

Peter Benjamin Hessler{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/09/us/32-us-rhodes-scholars-are-selected-to-study-in-oxford-for-1992.html|title=32 U.S. Rhodes Scholars Are Selected to Study in Oxford for 1992|agency=Associated Press|date=1991-12-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-05|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} (born June 14, 1969) is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of four books about China and has contributed numerous articles to The New Yorker and National Geographic, among other publications.{{Cite web |last=Apostoaie |first=Ella |date=2024-07-28 |title=Peter Hessler on China's Past and Present |url=https://www.thewirechina.com/2024/07/28/peter-hessler-on-chinas-past-and-present/ |access-date=2024-07-30 |website=The Wire China |language=en-US}} In 2011, Hessler received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his "keenly observed accounts of ordinary people responding to the complexities of life in such rapidly changing societies as Reform Era China."{{cite web|title=MacArthur Fellows Program: Meet the 2011 Fellows Hessler, Peter Doctor of Letters, UMC conferred May 18, 2013. |url=http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.7728991/k.12E8/Meet_the_2011_Fellows.|publisher=John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation|access-date=20 September 2011}}

Early life and education

Hessler grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and graduated from Hickman High School in 1988. In 1992, he graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in English after completing a senior thesis titled "Dead Man's Shoes and Other Stories."{{Cite journal|last=Hessler|first=Peter|date=1992|title=Dead Man's Shoes and Other Stories|url=http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01zp38wf00f}} During his junior year, he studied in John McPhee's writing seminar.{{Cite web |url=http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/09/journalist_peter_hessler_wins.php |title=Peter Hessler: Q&A; with winner of MacArthur Foundation genius grant and cool half million - Denver News - the Latest Word |access-date=2011-09-21 |archive-date=2011-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928030627/http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/09/journalist_peter_hessler_wins.php |url-status=dead }} After graduating from Princeton, Hessler received a Rhodes Scholarship to study English language and literature at Mansfield College, University of Oxford.As stated by Hessler in "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present", John Murray Publishers, London, 2006.

The summer before graduating from Princeton, Hessler worked as a researcher for the Kellogg Foundation in southeastern Missouri. He wrote an extensive ethnography about the small town of Sikeston, which was published in the Society for Applied Anthropology.[http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2006_nf_hessler.html 2006 National Book Award Finalist, Nonfiction]

Career

Hessler joined the Peace Corps in 1996 and was sent to China for two years to teach English at Fuling Teachers College, in a small city near the Yangtze River in Sichuan, later Chongqing municipality.{{efn|Fuling was initially a part of Sichuan Province, but was moved into the newly-established Chongqing Municipality in 1997.{{cite journal|last=Demattè|first=Paola |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/futuante.9.1.0049|title=After the Flood: Cultural Heritage and Cultural Politics in Chongqing Municipality and the Three Gorges Areas, China|journal=Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism|volume=9|issue=1|date=Summer 2012|pages=49–64|doi=10.5749/futuante.9.1.0049|jstor=10.5749/futuante.9.1.0049 |url-access=subscription}} - Cited: p. 52.}}{{Cite magazine|last=Hessler|first=Peter|title=The Peace Corps Breaks Ties with China|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/16/the-peace-corps-breaks-ties-with-china|access-date=2020-06-26|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us}}{{cite book |last1=Hessler |first1=Peter| title=River Town: two years on the Yangtze |year=2001 |publisher=Harper Collins}} He later worked in China as freelance writer for publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the South China Morning Post, and National Geographic.{{Cite web|url=https://rolfpotts.com/peter-hessler/|title=Travel Writer: Peter Hessler|last=|first=|date=July 2002|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}} Hessler joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2000 and served as foreign correspondent until 2007.[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/peter_hessler/search?contributorName=peter%20hessler Peter Hessler, The New Yorker] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703032816/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/peter_hessler/search?contributorName=peter%20hessler |date=2014-07-03 }}

Hessler has written four books on China. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001) is a Kiriyama Prize-winning book about his experiences in two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in China. Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China (2006) features a series of parallel episodes featuring his former students, a Uighur dissident who fled to the U.S., and the archaeologist Chen Mengjia who committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution. His third book, Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory (2010), is a record of Hessler's journeys driving a rented car from rural northern Chinese counties to the factory towns of southern China, and the significant economic and industrial growth taking place there. While his stories are about ordinary people's lives in China and not motivated by politics, they nevertheless touch upon political issues or the lives of people who encountered problems during the Cultural Revolution, one example being that of the story of the archaeologist Chen Mengjia and his wife, poet and translator Zhao Luorui. In 2013, he published Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West (2013), which, like his previous works, also covers China's ordinary people and life.

Hessler left China in 2007 and settled in Ridgway, Colorado,[http://hotmetalbridge.org/winter-2015/interview-peter-hessler/Right Times: An interview with Peter Hessler - Hot Metal Bridge]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Retrieved 2016.11-13. where he continued to publish articles in The New Yorker on topics including the Peace Corps in Nepal and small towns in Colorado.

In October 2011, Hessler and his family moved to Cairo, where he covered the Middle East for The New Yorker.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/09/peter-hessler-and-kay-ryan-receive-macarthur-genius-grants.html|title = Peter Hessler and Kay Ryan, 2011 Geniuses|magazine = The New Yorker|date = 20 September 2011}} In an interview upon being named a MacArthur Fellow in September 2011, he expressed his intention to spend much of the next year learning Arabic.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211206/cQq2dtzpt2o Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120521003645/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQq2dtzpt2o Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQq2dtzpt2o| title = Long-Form Journalist Peter Hessler: 2011 MacArthur Fellow {{!}} MacArthur Foundation | website=YouTube| date = 19 September 2011 }}{{cbignore}} He said he envisioned spending five or six years in the Middle East.{{Cite web |url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-04/01/content_12262713.htm |title=On the road less traveled |access-date=2011-09-20 |archive-date=2011-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411064708/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-04/01/content_12262713.htm |url-status=dead }} While living there, he and his wife both learned Egyptian Arabic."Talk Like an Egyptian", Letter from Cairo, New Yorker, April 17, 2017 In 2019, he published The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution, a book detailing his experiences of Egypt during the Arab Spring.

In August 2019, Hessler and his family moved to Chengdu in southwest China.{{cite news |last1=Foley |first1=Dylan |title=Journalist Peter Hessler on Moving to Egypt After the Revolution |url=https://lithub.com/journalist-peter-hessler-on-moving-to-egypt-just-before-the-revolution/ |access-date=30 August 2019 |work=Literary Hub |issue=Literary Hub |date=August 28, 2019}} He taught nonfiction writing at Sichuan University - Pittsburgh Institute.{{cite news |title=《寻路中国》作者何伟回来了，全家定居成都，任教四川大学 |url=https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_4294540 |trans-title=Peter Hessler, the author of Country Driving, returned and his family settled in Chengdu to teach at Sichuan University|access-date=30 August 2019 |work=The Paper |date=30 August 2019 |language=zh}}{{cite web |title=Peter Hessler |url=https://scupi.scu.edu.cn/en/faculty-staff-en/faculty-en/peter-hessler |website=Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute |access-date=10 September 2019|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20200522204548/https://scupi.scu.edu.cn/en/faculty-staff-en/faculty-en/peter-hessler|archivedate=22 May 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Bures |first1=Frank |title=Unearthing the Story: An Interview with Peter Hessler |url=https://longreads.com/2019/10/16/unearthing-the-story-an-interview-with-peter-hessler/ |access-date=23 October 2019 |work=Longread |date=2019-10-16}} During his time in Chengdu, Hessler wrote several pieces for The New Yorker about how China handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Because Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute declined to renew his teaching contract, after some of his students reported Hessler's class, he and his family moved back to Colorado at the end of the first semester of 2021.{{Cite web|url= https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3135452/china-author-peter-hessler-loses-teaching-post-sichuan|title= China author Peter Hessler loses teaching post at Sichuan University|work=South China Morning Post|date= 31 May 2021}}{{Cite web|url= http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1008025/peter-hesslers-last-class|title= Peter Hessler's Last Class|first=Yujia|last=He|work=Sixth Tone|date=July 19, 2021}}

Since 2024, Hessler has coached track at a middle school in Ridgway, Colorado. In 2025, he moved to coaching at the high school level, helping Ridgway to a state championship in the 4 by 800 at the 2a division at the CHSAA meet.[https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/sideline-sinology Sideline Sinology]

Personal life

Hessler is married to journalist and writer Leslie T. Chang.{{Cite web |url=http://www.timeout.com.hk/books/features/18225/interview-leslie-t-chang.html |title=Time Out Hong Kong – Book Reviews and Interviews | Interview: Leslie T. Chang |access-date=2010-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100520032357/http://www.timeout.com.hk/books/features/18225/interview-leslie-t-chang.html |archive-date=2010-05-20 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news| url = https://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/09/20/macarthur_foundation_genius_grant_recipients/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111016201752/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/09/20/macarthur_foundation_genius_grant_recipients/ | archive-date = October 16, 2011 | title = MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant' recipients}} They have two children, twin daughters Natasha and Ariel, whom Hessler featured in a June 2023 New Yorker article.{{cite magazine |last1=Hessler |first1=Peter |title=The Double Education off My Twins' Chinese School |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/03/the-double-education-of-my-twins-chinese-school |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Conde Nast |access-date=27 June 2023}}

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links

[http://peterhessler.net/ Official website]
{{C-SPAN|92367}}
[https://www.newyorker.com/feed/contributor/peter-hessler Peter Hessler's articles] at The New Yorker
{{Cite web

| last =

| first =

| author-link =

| title = Peter Hessler profiled on Rolf Pott's Vagabonding

| publisher =

| date =July 2002

| url = http://rolfpotts.com/peter-hessler/

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}}

{{Cite news

| last = Spence

| first = Jonathan

| author-link = Jonathan Spence

| title = 'Oracle Bones' by Peter Hessler - Sunday Book Review

| work = The New York Times

| date = 2006-04-30

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/books/review/30spence.html?ex=1304049600&en=a3ec356673d52036&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

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{{Cite web

| last =

| first =

| author-link =

| title = Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Peter Hessler on Tech Nation

| publisher = IT Conversations

| date = 2006-08-08

| url = http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail1242.html

| doi =

}}

{{Cite web| title =Meet the Writers - Peter Hessler| publisher =Barnes & Noble| url =http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=1020435&#Interview| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121127160246/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?cid=1020435&#Interview| archive-date =2012-11-27}}
{{Cite web

|title = Author Page - Peter Hessler

|publisher = HarperCollins

|url = http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/14653/Peter_Hessler/index.aspx

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929100101/http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/14653/Peter_Hessler/index.aspx

|archive-date = 2007-09-29

|url-status = dead

}}