Jonathan Katz
Jonathan Myerson Katz is a journalist and author. As the Associated Press chief correspondent in Haiti, he survived and was first to internationally report the January 2010 earthquake, then stayed to cover the aftermath and flawed recovery that followed. That fall he broke the story that the United Nations likely caused—and was covering up its role in—a postquake cholera epidemic that killed thousands more. Katz is now a freelance journalist covering international and domestic affairs.Katz was awarded the Medill (now James Foley) Medal for Courage in Journalism in 2011 for his work in Haiti. Other journalism recognition has included the National Headliners Award, two finalist recognitions by the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, several Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Club awards, and finalist recognition by the Michael Kelly Award for the “fearless pursuit and expression of truth.” In 2013, Katz was named one of Diplomatic Courier Magazine’s Top 99 Foreign Policy Leaders Under 33.
Katz received the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for the year’s best book on international affaris, the Cornelius Ryan Award, for The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster. The book was also one of five finalists for the 2013-14 PEN/Galbraith Award for nonfiction. It received an unprecedented two recognitions from the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards from Columbia and Harvard Universities: the 2012 Work-in-Progress Award, and recognition as the finalist for the 2014 Book Prize, won the 2013 Washington Office on Latin America/Duke University Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America, was shortlisted for the Ridenhour Book Prize and Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, named a finalist for the New York Public Library’s 2014 Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, selected for Barnes & Noble’s prestigious Discover Great New Writers program, and named one of the year’s best books by Slate, Amazon.com, The Christian Science Monitor, and Kirkus Reviews. Widely lauded by reviewers, it was recommended twice in the pages of the New York Times Sunday Book Review by authors Sheri Fink and Edwidge Danticat.
In seven years with AP, Katz also reported from Washington, New York, Mexico, China, Israel, Palestine, the Dominican Republic, and across the Caribbean. Now a regular contributor to the New York Times, he has also contributed recently to the New Republic, Foreign Policy, Gawker, Slate, New Yorker, Beacon Reader, and other publications. Katz is a frequent guest on radio and television.
For more about Jonathan and his works, go to http://thebigtruck.tumblr.com/
