Who I Am & Where I Live
-
Name:
Eli Saslow
-
City:
Portland, Oregon
-
Country:
United States
Current News
-
What's Up?
Rising Out of Hatred
The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist
By Eli Saslow
From a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, the powerful story of how a prominent white supremacist changed his heart and mind
Derek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. His father founded Stormfront, the largest racist community on the Internet. His godfather, David Duke, was a KKK Grand Wizard. By the time Derek turned nineteen, he had become an elected politician with his own daily radio show – already regarded as the “the leading light” of the burgeoning white nationalist movement. “We can infiltrate,” Derek once told a crowd of white nationalists. “We can take the country back.”
Then he went to college. Derek had been home-schooled by his parents, steeped in the culture of white supremacy, and he had rarely encountered diverse perspectives or direct outrage against his beliefs. At New College of Florida, he continued to broadcast his radio show in secret each morning, living a double life until a classmate uncovered his identity and sent an email to the entire school. “Derek Black…white supremacist, radio host…New College student???”
The ensuing uproar overtook one of the most liberal colleges in the country. Some students protested Derek’s presence on campus, forcing him to reconcile for the first time with the ugliness his beliefs. Other students found the courage to reach out to him, including an Orthodox Jew who invited Derek to attend weekly Shabbat dinners. It was because of those dinners–and the wide-ranging relationships formed at that table–that Derek started to question the science, history and prejudices behind his worldview. As white nationalism infiltrated the political mainstream, Derek decided to confront the damage he had done.
Rising Out of Hatred tells the story of how white-supremacist ideas migrated from the far-right fringe to the White House through the intensely personal saga of one man who eventually disavowed everything he was taught to believe, at tremendous personal cost. With great empathy and narrative verve, Eli Saslow asks what Derek’s story can tell us about America’s increasingly divided nature. This is a book to help us understand the American moment and to help us better understand one another.
My Life & Work
-
Bio:
Eli Saslow is an author and a staff writer for The Washington Post, where he travels the country to write in-depth stories about the impact of major national issues on individual lives.
He won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for a series of stories about the rise of food stamps and hunger in the United States. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 2013, 2016 and 2017. Both of his books were published by Doubleday: Rising out of Hatred, and Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President, in 2012. An occasional contributor to ESPN the Magazine, four of his stories have been anthologized in Best American Sportswriting.
He is the winner of a Polk Award, a James Beard Award for Food Writing, a PEN America Award and several journalism honors.
A 2004 graduate of Syracuse University, he now lives in Portland with his wife and three children.
(from https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/eli-saslow/)
Contact Information
-
Management/Booking:
https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/eli-saslow
More
-
Quotes, Notes & Etc.
Honors & Awards:
2014 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Feature Writing
2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Feature Writing
2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Feature Writing
2017 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Journalism
2017 Mike Berger Award for Human Interest Reporting
2017 Dori J. Maynard Award for Justice in Journalism
2014 George Polk Award for National Reporting
2014 James Beard Award for Food Writing
2014 ASNE Award for non-deadline writing
2015 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting
2013 Mayborn Best American Newspaper Narrative Contest, First Place
2013 Darrell Sifford Memorial Prize in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism
2014 Mayborn Best American Newspaper Narrative Contest, First Place
2016 DART Award for Excellence in Trauma Reporting
Stories selected or Best American Sports Writing in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015
Clips (more may be added)
Share