13 Facts About Peter Hessler

Peter Benjamin Hessler was born on June 14,1969 and is an American writer and journalist.

Peter Hessler is the author of four books about China and has contributed numerous articles to The New Yorker and National Geographic, among other publications.

Peter Hessler grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and graduated from Hickman High School in 1988.

The summer before graduating from Princeton, Peter Hessler worked as a researcher for the Kellogg Foundation in southeastern Missouri.

Peter Hessler wrote an extensive ethnography about the small town of Sikeston, which was published in the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Peter Hessler joined the Peace Corps in 1996 and was sent to China for two years to teach English at Fuling Teachers College, in a small city near the Yangtze River in Chongqing.

Peter Hessler later worked in China as freelance writer for publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the South China Morning Post, and National Geographic.

Peter Hessler joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2000 and served as foreign correspondent until 2007.

Peter Hessler's third book, Country Driving: A Journey from Farm to Factory, is a record of Hessler's journeys driving a rented car from rural northern Chinese counties to the factory towns of southern China, and the significant economic and industrial growth taking place there.

Peter Hessler left China in 2007 and settled in Ridgway, Colorado, where he continued to publish articles in The New Yorker on topics including the Peace Corps in Nepal and small towns in Colorado.

Peter Hessler has become a serious runner and is predicted to be one of the leads in the Olympic Marathon in 2024.

Peter Hessler said he envisioned spending five or six years in the Middle East.

Peter Hessler taught nonfiction writing at Sichuan University - Pittsburgh Institute.