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William Finnegan

ウィリアム・フィネガン

Wiriamu Finegan

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
: （New York City）
Died
:
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
New York City → Los Angeles → Hawaii → Long Island

Career

Occupations
journalist, author, staff writer
Active Years
1979-2024
Affiliations
The New Yorker
Nominations
National Magazine Award finalist 1990, National Magazine Award finalist 1995, Helen Bernstein Book Award finalist 1999

Education

William Howard Taft High School
Country: United States
Woodland Hills, California
University of California, Santa Cruz
Literature
Degree: B.A.
Year of Graduation: 1974
Country: United States
University of Montana
creative writing
Degree: M.F.A.
Country: United States
working on an MFA

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
2016
Work: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: winner
John Bartlow Martin Award
1994
Organization: Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism
Result: winner
John Bartlow Martin Award
1996
Organization: Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism
Result: winner
Edward M. Brecher Award
1994
Work: Deep East Texas
Organization: Drug Policy Foundation
Result: winner
Sidney Hillman Award
1998
Work: The Unwanted
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

2015 memoir

Autobiographical account of the author's lifelong passion for surfing, chronicling travels and experiences around the world.

surfingtravelpersonal growth

Crossing the Line: A Year in the Land of Apartheid

1986 nonfiction

Account of a year teaching in apartheid-era South Africa at a school for coloured students during a nationwide boycott.

apartheidracismeducation

A Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambique

1992 journalism

Reporting on the Mozambican Civil War based on travels and correspondence.

civil warAfrican conflicts

Dateline Soweto: Travels with Black South African Reporters

1988 nonfiction

Travels with black reporters in apartheid Johannesburg gathering info for white reporters.

journalismapartheid

Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country

1998 social reportage

Explores the harsh lives of American teenagers amid national prosperity.

povertyyouthAmerican society

Bibliography

  • Crossing the line: a year in the land of apartheid (1984)
  • A complicated war: the harrowing of Mozambique (1993)
  • Dateline Soweto: travels with Black South African reporters (1995)
  • Cold new world: growing up in a harder country (1998)
  • Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life (2015)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
long-form journalismimmersive reportingdetailed on-the-ground accounts
Recurring Motifs
surfingracismpovertyinternational conflictimmigration

Legacy

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, renowned for his surfing memoir Barbarian Days and reporting on racism, poverty, and conflicts in Southern Africa, Mexico, and the US.

In Popular Culture

  • Barbarian Days considered one of the best works of surfing journalism

Trivia

  • Lifelong surfer who still practices off Long Island.
  • Taught English at a 'coloured' high school in apartheid South Africa.
  • Father was TV/film producer known for Hawaii Five-O and The Fabulous Baker Boys.
  • Contributing writer to The New Yorker since 1984, staff writer since 1987.