YouTube video of Higginbotham's program >>> (Available through Wednesday, February 3)
Thursday, January 21, 7:00 PM, Zoom
Adam Higginbotham is an English journalist and writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian and Bloomberg Businessweek. His 2014 magazine article for The Atavist, titled “A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite,” was turned into an eBook that was named one of Amazon’s best books of the year. He began reporting on the Chernobyl disaster on assignment in Moscow and Kiev for London's Observer Magazine in 2006. He lives in New York.
Midnight in Chernobyl is Higginbotham’s first book. After reporting on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster for more than a decade, Higginbotham delivered a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters. Higginbotham conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and drew on letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives to present a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand.
Midnight in Chernobyl was named of the best books of the year by The New York Times, Time, Kirkus Reviews, and NPR. The book earned Higginbotham the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
The event will be moderated by Courtney Crowder. Courtney is the first female Iowa Columnist for The Des Moines Register. She focuses on telling human stories with an investigative eye and a narrative touch. Crowder’s first journalism job was with the Chicago Tribune Books section, where she interviewed authors, kept the review copy room under control and organized the Printers Row Lit Fest. A graduate of New York University, Crowder is a gummy bear aficionado and a parallel parking master.
Related Links
- An Enthralling and Terrifying History of the Nuclear Meltdown at Chernobyl (New York Times)
- What Really Happened after the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Exploded (Fast Company)
- Midnight in Chernobyl Author on how a Workers' Paradise Became a Nuclear Nightmare (EW)
- Radio Interview: The Disastrous Days of April 1986 (Science Friday)
- Video: Adam Higginbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl (YouTube, Politics and Prose)