Ted Conover is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author and journalist. A graduate of Denver's
Manual High SchoolManual High School is located in the Whittier neighborhood on the east side of Denver, Colorado.-Demographics:*5.6% white*40.9% African American*58.1% Latino*0% Native American*0.3% Asian- Manual Today :...
and
Amherst CollegeAmherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
and a Marshall Scholar, he is also a distinguished writer-in-residence in the
Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. He teaches graduate courses in the
Literary Reportage concentration and an undergraduate course on journalism and empathy.
Writing career
Conover's books of narrative nonfiction have typically been explorations of off-beat social worlds. He will often become an active participant in the subculture he is writing about. His first experiment with this melding of anthropological and journalistic method took place in 1980, when he rode freight railroads back and forth across the western United States with some of the last remaining
hoboA hobo is a term which is often applied to a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike 'tramps', who work only when they are forced to, and 'bums', who do not...
s. This experience, initially rendered as an ethnography for an honors thesis, became the basis of his first-person book,
Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes (1984).
A few of those Conover met on the rails were Mexican nationals, and in his next book,
Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders with America's Illegal Migrants (1987), he turned his attention to illegal immigrants, describing them as "the true modern-day incarnation of the classic American hobo." Conover spent a year traveling with Mexicans in order to write Coyotes; he lived in a "feeder" valley in the Mexican state of
QuerétaroQuerétaro officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro de Arteaga is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro....
, spent time in
ArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
,
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and
FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and crossed the border three times. The 1987 book came out in a new edition in 2006 with a new preface and subtitle: "A Journey Across Borders With America's Mexican Migrants."
His next project, which he has stated he undertook in part to see whether the participatory approach could work with wealthier people, describes life in the mining-town-turned-lifestyle-capital of
Aspen, ColoradoThe City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, where Conover worked as a driver for the Mellow Yellow Taxi Company, the Aspen Times, and for a catering company. The result was
Whiteout: Lost in Aspen (1991).
A few years later, Conover took a job at Sing Sing prison in New York state, where he worked for nearly a year — without the state's knowledge — as a rookie correction officer. The resulting book,
Newjack: Guarding Sing SingNewjack: Guarding Sing Sing is a non-fiction book by Ted Conover, published in 2000. In the book, Conover, a journalist and university professor, recounts his experience of learning about the New York State correctional system by becoming a correctional officer for nearly a year...
(2000), was a finalist for the
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
and won the 2000
National Book Critics Circle AwardThe National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
in General Nonfiction, among other honors. For many months, prisoners and their visitors were banned from reading Newjack; now, inmates who receive a copy have to wait up to several months while the state redacts several pages that it considers a threat to security.
His most recent work is
The Routes of Man: Travels in the Paved World (2011). Conover discussed it in the Paper Cuts blog of the
New York Times Book Review.
In addition to books, much of Conover's work has been published in magazines. He frequently contributes to
The New York Times MagazineThe New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
,
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
,
The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
,
National Geographic MagazineNational Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
,
Travel + LeisureTravel + Leisure is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is put out by American Express Publishing Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express Company led by...
, and others. He is on the editorial board of the literary magazine
The CommonThe Common is a nonprofit biannual magazine based at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The magazine publishes stories, poems, essays, and images centered around "a modern sense of place." - History :...
, based at
Amherst CollegeAmherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, and published work in the debut issue.
External links