23 Facts About Evan Wright

1.

Evan Wright is best known for his book on the Iraq War, Generation Kill.

2.

Evan Wright wrote an expose about a top CIA officer who allegedly worked as a Mafia hitman, How to Get Away With Murder in America.

3.

Evan Wright's father was a prosecutor, then the general counsel for a utility.

4.

Evan Wright attended Hawken School, but was kicked out for selling marijuana and sent to a home for juvenile delinquents called the Seed.

5.

Evan Wright returned to Hawken and made state debate finals in high school.

6.

Evan Wright studied at Johns Hopkins University and at Vassar College; he graduated from Vassar with a degree in medieval history.

7.

Evan Wright's first writing job was to interview South African political leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, but it was for a small magazine that did not pay.

8.

Several of his essays were collected in the book Hella Nation, which Evan Wright called a "sort of autobiography".

9.

In 2002, Evan Wright went to Afghanistan on assignment for Rolling Stone.

10.

Evan Wright spent his entire time embedded in a recon team led by then Sergeant Brad Colbert.

11.

Evan Wright published a series of articles for Rolling Stone magazine titled "The Killer Elite" which, in 2004, received the National Magazine Award for Reporting, the top prize in magazine writing.

12.

Evan Wright interviewed General David Petraeus and spent several weeks embedded with US troops in Baghdad, Ramadi, and Diwania.

13.

Evan Wright later criticized American television media for promoting misperceptions of the war.

14.

Evan Wright criticized some US political leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for calling the surge a failure before it had been fully implemented.

15.

HBO adapted Generation Kill into an eponymous television miniseries first aired in 2008; Evan Wright is portrayed by Lee Tergesen.

16.

Evan Wright himself served as a writer and consulting producer on the project, collaborating closely with Emmy-winning producer David Simon.

17.

Evan Wright was hired by Paramount to write a script about Miami's "Cocaine Cowboys" Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday for Peter Berg to direct.

18.

The screenplay is based on a book Evan Wright wrote about Roberts, published by Crown Books.

19.

In 2010, it was announced that director Ole Bornedal was filming a movie inspired by an article Evan Wright wrote for Time magazine called "Death of a Hostess".

20.

Evan Wright's article was a profile of Japanese serial-rapist and killer Joji Obara he wrote in Tokyo for Time magazine.

21.

At least six of the Marines Evan Wright wrote about in Generation Kill have claimed they were punished for the remarks he published.

22.

In 2004, Evan Wright wrote an op-ed in The New York Times criticizing the US military for allowing Iraq's insurgents to obtain weapons.

23.

Evan Wright has criticized college creative writing programs, saying such programs produce bad writers.