16 Facts About Peter Godwin

Peter Godwin was born on 4 December 1957 and is a Zimbabwean author, journalist, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, and former human rights lawyer.

Peter Godwin served as president of PEN American Center from 2012 to 2015 and resides in Manhattan, New York.

Peter Godwin's mother came from an Anglican background in England and she moved to Southern Rhodesia in her twenties, where she was a medical doctor.

For fear of anti-semitism, Peter Godwin's father did not tell his children about his Jewish background for decades and instead went by the name George Peter Godwin.

Peter Godwin grew up with his family in Rhodesia, where he attended St George's College.

Peter Godwin was conscripted into the British South Africa Police at the age of seventeen to fight in the Rhodesian Bush War.

Peter Godwin studied law at Cambridge University and international relations at Oxford University.

Peter Godwin was formerly a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times, covering wars in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

Peter Godwin is a contributor to The New York Times and Vanity Fair, among other publications.

Peter Godwin has reviewed books for The New York Times Book Review.

In 2012, Peter Godwin was named President of PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world's oldest literary and human rights organisation.

Peter Godwin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Peter Godwin has been a Guggenheim Fellow, an Orwell Fellow, and a MacDowell Fellow, and has taught writing at The New School, Princeton University, and Columbia University.

In 1997, Peter Godwin published Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.

Peter Godwin was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air in March 2011 about the situation in Zimbabwe since the 2008 general election.

Peter Godwin was married to Joanna Coles, living together in the Upper West Side of Manhattan with their sons, Thomas and Hugo, who as of November 2019 were aged 20 and 18 respectively, and with a dog, Phoebe.