Kathryn Schulz is an American journalist and author. She is a staff writer at The New Yorker.[1] In 2016, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her article on the risk of a major earthquake and tsunami in the Pacific Northwest.[2] In 2023, she won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir or Biography.[3][4]

Kathryn Schulz
Schulz in 2010
Schulz in 2010
BornShaker Heights, Ohio, U.S.
OccupationJournalist
EducationBrown University (BA)
GenreNon-fiction
Notable awards
RelativesLaura Schulz (sister)

Biography

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Schulz was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, to teacher Margot Schulz and lawyer Isaac Schulz.[5] Her sister is the MIT cognitive scientist Laura Schulz. Schulz has described her family as "a fiercely intellectual family that is very interested in ideas." Schulz graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1992. She then attended Brown University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in history in 1996.[6]

After graduation Schulz planned to take a year off before pursuing a Ph.D.; she lived in Portland, Oregon briefly before moving to Costa Rica with her sister's family. Seeking to remain in Latin America and use her Spanish, Schulz became an editor and reporter at The Santiago Times. Through the experience she "realized that [her] attraction to ideas could be pursued without returning to academia." She returned to the United States in 2001, moving to New York City to work for Grist.[7]

 
Schulz in 2010

In 2015, Schulz became a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she has written about everything from the legacy of an early Muslim immigrant in Wyoming[8] to the radical life of civil rights activist Pauli Murray[9] to Henry David Thoreau's Walden[10] to brown marmorated stinkbugs.[11] In 2016, she won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and a National Magazine Award for “The Really Big One,”[12] her story on seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest.

Previously, she was the book critic for New York.

She is the author of the book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. Her second book, Lost & Found, was published by Random House on January 11, 2022.[13]

Schulz was a 2004 recipient of the Pew Fellowship in International Journalism (now the International Reporting Project), and has reported from throughout Central and South America, Japan and the Middle East.[14]

Reviews and honors

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In 2016, Schulz won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award for "The Really Big One,"[15] an article about seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest. She was also a finalist for the 2017 National Magazine Award for "When Things Go Missing,"[16] an essay about loss and the death of her father.

Reviewing her book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (2010), Dwight Garner wrote: "Ms. Schulz's book is a funny and philosophical meditation on why error is mostly a humane, courageous and extremely desirable human trait. She flies high in the intellectual skies, leaving beautiful sunlit contrails."[17] Daniel Gilbert described her as "a warm, witty and welcome presence who confides in her readers rather than lecturing them. It doesn't hurt that she combines lucid prose with perfect comic timing."[18]

Her writing has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Travel Writing, The Best American Food Writing, and The Best American Science Writing.

Personal life

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Schulz is married to Casey Cep, a fellow staff writer at The New Yorker; Schulz wrote about falling in love with her in Lost & Found. They live with their infant daughter on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, near where Cep grew up.[19]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • Being wrong : adventures in the margin of error. Ecco/HarperCollins. 2010.
  • Lost & found : a memoir. Random House. 2022.

Essays and reporting

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Book reviews

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Date Review article Work(s) reviewed
18 November 2003 "Kathryn Schulz reviews Monster of God by David Quammen". Grist. 18 November 2003. Quammen, David (2003). Monster of God : the man-eating predator in the jungles of history and the mind. New York: W. W. Norton.

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Notes
  1. ^ Title in the online table of contents is "The earthquake that will devastate the Pacific Northwest".
  2. ^ Title in the online table of contents is "Talk about the weather".
  3. ^ Online version is titled "Literature’s Arctic obsession".
  4. ^ Available on website only.
  5. ^ Online version is titled "Why animals don't get lost".
  6. ^ Online version is titled "The church of Jonathan Franzen".

References

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  1. ^ "Contributors: Kathryn Schulz" Archived 2015-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, The New Yorker.
  2. ^ "The 2016 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Feature Writing: Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker". Columbia University. 2016. Archived from the original on November 8, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  3. ^ "2023 Winners". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  4. ^ Schaub, Michael (2023-06-12). "2023 Lambda Literary Award Winners Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
  5. ^ "ISAAC SCHULZ's Obituary". The Plain Dealer. 2016-09-20. Archived from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  6. ^ Center, Julianne (2016-04-26). "In conversation: Kathryn Schulz '96". Brown Daily Herald. Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  7. ^ Starrett, Sue (June 2011). "The Wrongologist: Q&A with Kathryn Schulz" (PDF). Shaker Life. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-12-31. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  8. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "The Old West's Muslim Tamale King". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  9. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "The Civil-Rights Luminary You've Never Heard Of". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2019-08-26. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  10. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "Why Do We Love Henry David Thoreau?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-03-22. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  11. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  12. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  13. ^ Schulz, Kathryn (2022). Lost & Found: A Memoir. Random House. ISBN 978-0-525-51247-9. Archived from the original on 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  14. ^ "Why Should We Embrace Regret?". TED Radio Hour. NPR. May 2, 2012. Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
  15. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  16. ^ Schulz, Kathryn. "When Things Go Missing". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  17. ^ Dwight Garner, "To Err Is Human. And How! And Why" Archived 2017-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, June 10, 2010.
  18. ^ Daniel Gilbert, "The Errors of Our Ways" Archived 2017-05-11 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, Sunday Book Review, July 23, 2010
  19. ^ Jessica M. Goldstein (2022-01-13) [2022-01-11]. "Life these days is a symphony of grief and celebration. Kathryn Schulz puts it into words". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409. Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2022-08-15.[please check these dates]
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