David J. Remnick is an American journalist and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '. Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998. He was named Editor of the Year by Advertising Age in 2000. Before joining The New Yorker, Remnick was a reporter and the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post. He also has served on the New York Public Libraryboard of trustees. In 2010 he published his sixth book, '.
Background
Remnick was born to a Jewish family in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Barbara, an art teacher, and Edward C. Remnick, a dentist. He was raised in Hillsdale, New Jersey, in a secular Jewish home with, he has said, "a lot of books around." He is also childhood friends with comedian Bill Maher. He attended Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale. He was graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1981 with an A.B. in comparative literature; there, he met writer John McPhee, was a member of the University Press Club, and helped found The Nassau Weekly. Remnick completed a 122-page long senior thesis titled "The Sympathetic Thread: 'Leaves of Grass' 1855-1865." Remnick has implied that after college he wanted to write novels, but due to the illnesses of his parents, he needed to get a job. Remnick wanted to be a writer, so he chose a career in journalism, taking a job at The Washington Post.
Career
''Washington Post''
Remnick began his reporting career at The Washington Post in 1982 shortly after his graduation from Princeton. His first assignment was to cover the United States Football League. After six years, in 1988, he became the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, which provided him with the material for. He also received the George Polk Award for excellence in journalism in 1993.
''New Yorker''
Remnick became a staff writer at The New Yorkerin September 1992, after ten years at The Washington Post. Remnick's 1997 New Yorker article "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", about boxer Mike Tyson, was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In July 1998, he became editor, succeeding Tina Brown. Remnick promoted Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Jimmy Carter speechwriter and former editor of The New Republic, to write the lead pieces in "Talk of the Town", the magazine's opening section. In 2005, Remnick earned $1 million for his work as the magazine's editor. In 2003, Remnick penned an editorial in the New Yorker in the lead-up to the Iraq War saying "the United States has been wrong, politically and morally, about Iraq more than once in the past... but... a return to a hollow pursuit of containment will be the most dangerous option of all." In the months leading up to the war, the magazine also published several articles connecting Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida, often relying on unnamed sources, or simply the claims of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as evidence. The magazine received some criticism for their journalism during this period. The claims that Hussein and al-Qaida had a close operational relationship were false, as confirmed by numerous sources including a U.S military study in 2008. In 2004, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker endorsed a presidential candidate, John Kerry. In May 2009, Remnick was the subject of an extended Twitter thread by former New Yorker staff writer Dan Baum, whose contract with the magazine was not renewed by Remnick. The tweets, written over the course of a week, described the difficult relationship between Baum and Remnick, his editor. Remnick's biography of President Barack Obama, , was released on April 6, 2010. It features hundreds of interviews with friends, colleagues, and other witnesses to Obama's rise to the presidency of the United States. In 2010, Remnick lent his support to the campaign urging the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and ordering the murder of her husband by her lover. Remnick provided guest commentary and contributed to NBC coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in SochiRussia, including the opening ceremony and commentary for NBC News. Remnick is also the host of The New Yorker Radio Hour, produced by WNYC and The New Yorker. In May 2014, Remnick served as the commencement speaker at the 160th commencement of Syracuse University.
Personal life
In 1987, Remnick married reporter Esther Fein in a Jewish ceremony at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. Fein has worked as a reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post. The couple has three children, Alex, Noah, and Natasha. Remnick is fluent in Russian.
