Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler (b. June 14, 1969) is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of three books about China, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001), Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present (2006), and Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (2010).

Early life

Peter Hessler grew up in Columbia, Missouri and graduated from Hickman High School in 1988. His father was a sociology professor at the University of Missouri, and his mother teaches history at Columbia College, Missouri. He became interested in literature and writing while in high school. He went on to study English and creative writing at Princeton University, where, during his junior year, he took John McPhee's renowned writing seminar. Hessler graduated in 1992 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study English language and literature at the University of Oxford.

Career

Early career

In 1996, he joined the Peace Corps and spent the next two years teaching English at a local college in Fuling, China. He lived in Beijing as a freelance writer for a decade, but now lives in Colorado with his wife, journalist and writer Leslie T. Chang since 2007. Peter Hessler's Chinese name is 何伟 (Hé Wěi).

Hessler was the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic. He has previously written for the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and other American newspapers and magazines. He is best known for his two books on China: River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001), a Kiriyama Prize-winning book about his experiences in two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in China, and Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present (2006), a collection of journalistic stories he wrote while living in Beijing. While his stories are ostensibly about ordinary people's lives in China and are not motivated by politics, they nevertheless touch upon political issues or the lives of people who encountered problems during the Cultural Revolution, the central example being that of the story of the archaeologist Chen Mengjia and his wife, poet and translator Zhao Luorui (aka Lucy Chao). He released his newest book about China in 2010 called Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (2010).

Bibliography

Books

• Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, Harper, New York, 2010.
• Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present, John Murray Publishers, London, 2006.
• River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Harper, New York, 2001; (awarded the Kiriyama Prize)

Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present

Released in 2006, the book records a series of parallel episodes in Hessler's time in China, when he worked there as both a teacher and journalist. The characters featured are his former students, now spread about the country, often now Englsih teachers, as well as an Uighur disssident who finally fled to the USA. However, the oracle bones of tebook's title refers to a story he unearths regarding the archaeologist Chen Mengjia who comitted suicide during the Cultural Revolution.

Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory

Released 9 February 2010, Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory records Peter Hessler's journey from northern Chinese counties, down to the factory towns of southern China. Hessler looks at the significant economic and industrial growth and development current in China.

Articles

• Hessler, Peter. "Tibet Through Chinese Eyes". The Atlantic. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• "Voices - Peter Hessler in China". National Geographic. 2006-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Hessler, Peter (12 January 2009). "Letter from China: Strange Stones". The New Yorker. 84 (44): 30–35. Abstract

External links

• "Peter Hessler profiled on Rolf Pott's Vagabonding". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Spence, Jonathan (2006-04-30). "'Oracle Bones' by Peter Hessler - Sunday Book Review". The New York Times. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• "Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Peter Hessler on Tech Nation". IT Conversations. 2006-08-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• "Meet the Writers - Peter Hessler". Barnes & Noble. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• "Author Page - Peter Hessler". HarperCollins. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• "Video: Peter Hessler discusses his book 'Country Driving'". Asia Society. February 9, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)