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John Branch

Biography

John Branch

John Branch is a reporter for the New York Times. His feature article about an avalanche in Washington State, "Snow Fall," won the Pulitzer Prize; he has been featured three times in The Best American Sports Writing; and his first book, BOY ON ICE, won the PEN/ESPN Prize for Literary Sports Writing. He lives near San Francisco.

Photo Credit: © Catherine Branch

Books by John Branch

The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West
by John Branch - Biography, Nonfiction

THE LAST COWBOYS is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Branch’s epic tale of one American family struggling to hold on to the fading vestiges of the Old West. For generations, the Wrights of southern Utah have raised cattle and world-champion saddle-bronc riders --- many call them the most successful rodeo family in history. Now they find themselves fighting to save their land and livelihood as the West is transformed by urbanization, battered by drought and rearranged by public-land disputes. Could rodeo, of all things, be the answer?

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard
by John Branch - Biography, Nonfiction, Sports

The tragic death of hockey star Derek Boogaard at 28 was front-page news across the country in 2011 and helped shatter the silence about violence and concussions in professional sports. Now, acclaimed reporter John Branch tells the shocking story of Boogaard's life and heartbreaking death. BOY ON ICE raises deep and disturbing questions about the systemic brutality of contact sports and the damage that reaches far beyond the game.