Brendan I. Koerner

Last updated

Brendan I. Koerner
Born (1974-09-21) September 21, 1974 (age 47)
Los Angeles, California
OccupationEditor, Columnist, Writer
Education Yale University
Notable works The Skies Belong to Us (2013)
Piano Demon (2011)
Now the Hell Will Start (2008)
Children2

Brendan Ian Koerner (born September 21, 1974) is an American author who has been a contributing editor and columnist for Wired magazine, The New York Times , Slate magazine, and others. His books include Now the Hell Will Start (2008) and The Skies Belong to Us (2013).

Contents

Education and career

Koerner graduated from Yale University with a BA degree. [1] In college, he contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record . [2]

Koerner's first journalism job out of school was at U.S. News & World Report as a researcher and fact checker, he eventually became senior editor. [1] [3] Koerner left USN&WR to become a freelance writer in 2000, and was a regular contributor to The New Republic , Mother Jones , Harper's Magazine , Legal Affairs , Washington Monthly , and The Christian Science Monitor . [1] [4] He was also a columnist for Gizmodo.com , Slate.com , The New York Times Sunday Business section and the Village Voice (as "Mr. Roboto"). [1] [4] In addition, Koerner has served as a contributing editor to Wired . [1] [4] He has also published in magazines such as Details, Spin and Men's Journal. [4] In 2006, Koerner edited the anthology The Best of Technology Writing which was positively reviewed in California Bookwatch [5] and SciTech Book News. [1] [6]

His first solo authored full length book, Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II , was published by Penguin Press in 2008. It is a non-fiction narrative investigating and recounting the story of Herman Perry, an African-American World War II soldier stationed in the China-Burma-India theatre of the war. Perry killed a white officer while helping construct the Ledo Road. He subsequently retreated into the Indo-Burmese wilderness and joined a tribe of the headhunting Nagas. The book was favorably reviewed. [7] [8] [9] [10] In 2009, Spike Lee optioned the film rights and Lee commissioned Koerner to write a draft of the screenplay. [11] [12]

In 2011, Koerner published Piano Demon: The Globetrotting, Gin-Soaked, Too-Short Life of Teddy Weatherford, the Chicago Jazzman Who Conquered Asia, it is about the jazz musician Teddy Weatherford. [13]

Koerner's third book, The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking (2013) is a history of the "golden age" of skyjacking in the United States from the first incident in May 1961 through January 1973, when there were as many as one skyjacking a week or about 159 in total. The book looks at the causes of the epidemic, some of the more famous ones and follows in-depth the story of the longest-distance skyjacking in American history, involving Willie Roger Holder and Catherine Marie Kerkow, a young couple who took control of Western Airlines Flight 701 on June 2, 1972. The book was favorably reviewed including in The New York Times Book Review , [14] The New York Times , [15] The Washington Post , [16] Los Angeles Times , [17] The National (Abu Dhabi), [18] SFGate , [19] and Bookforum . [20]

Awards and honors

Koerner is a fellow at the New America Foundation. In 2002, the Columbia Journalism Review named him one of its "Ten Young Writers on the Rise". [21] In 2010, the New Haven Review included him in its list of "20 Non-fiction Writers Under 40". [22] In 2003, he won a National Headliner Award for feature writing. [23] His work has been anthologized in Best American Science Writing (2003, "Disorders Made to Order") and Best American Science and Nature Writing (2003, "Embryo Police"). [1]

Personal life

Brendan's father gave him the middle name Ian because he was a fan of Ian Fleming's James Bond movies. [11] Brendan is married, with a son [11] and a daughter.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. Dating from the earliest of hijackings, most cases involve the pilot being forced to fly according to the hijacker's demands. However, in rare cases, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves and used them in suicide attacks – most notably in the September 11 attacks – and in several cases, planes have been hijacked by the official pilot or co-pilot; e.g., Germanwings Flight 9525.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. B. Cooper</span> Unidentified airplane hijacker in 1971

D. B. Cooper is a media epithet for an unidentified man who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft operated by Northwest Orient Airlines, in United States airspace on November 24, 1971. During the flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington, the hijacker told a flight attendant he was armed with a bomb, demanded $200,000 in ransom, and requested four parachutes upon landing in Seattle. After releasing the passengers in Seattle, the hijacker instructed the flight crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada.

Dawsons Field hijackings 1970 hijacking of passenger flights by Palestinian militants in Zarqa, Jordan

In September 1970, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked four airliners bound for New York City and one for London. Three aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field, a remote desert airstrip near Zarqa, Jordan, formerly Royal Air Force Station Zarqa, which then became PFLP's "Revolutionary Airport". By the end of the incident, one hijacker had been killed and one injury reported. This was the second instance of mass aircraft hijacking, after an escape from communist Czechoslovakia in 1950.

Teddy Weatherford was an American jazz pianist and an accomplished stride pianist.

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<i>Skyjacked</i> (film) 1972 disaster film directed by John Guillermin

Skyjacked is a 1972 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin. The film stars Charlton Heston, James Brolin and Yvette Mimieux, along with an ensemble cast primarily playing the roles of passengers and crew aboard an airliner. Skyjacked is based on the David Harper novel Hijacked.

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<i>Now the Hell Will Start</i>

Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II (2008) is a narrative nonfiction history book by United States author Brendan I. Koerner.

Robert Anthony Siegel is an American writer and professor. He is the author of two novels and numerous short stories and essays, and has been recognized with O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes among other awards. He currently teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Southern Airways Flight 49 1972 aircraft hijacking

The hijacking of Southern Airways Flight 49 started on November 10, 1972 in Birmingham, Alabama, stretching over 30 hours, three countries, and 4,000 miles (6,400 km), not ending until the next evening in Havana, Cuba. Three men, Melvin Cale, Louis Moore, and Henry D. Jackson Jr. successfully hijacked a Southern Airways Douglas DC-9 that was scheduled to fly from Memphis, Tennessee to Miami, Florida via Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama and Orlando, Florida. The three were each facing criminal charges for unrelated incidents. 34 people, including 31 passengers and 3 crew members, were aboard the airplane when it was hijacked. The hijackers' threat to crash the aircraft into a nuclear reactor led directly to the requirement that U.S. airline passengers be physically screened, beginning January 5, 1973.

Kuwait Airways Flight 422 1988 aircraft hijacking

Kuwait Airways Flight 422 was a Boeing 747 jumbo jet hijacked en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Kuwait on 5 April 1988, leading to a hostage crisis that lasted 16 days and encompassed three continents. The hijacking was carried out by several Lebanese guerillas who demanded the release of 17 Shi'ite Muslim prisoners being held by Kuwait for their role in the 1983 Kuwait bombings. During the incident the flight, initially forced to land in Iran, traveled 3,200 mi (5,100 km) from Mashhad in northeastern Iran to Larnaca, Cyprus, and finally to Algiers.

Richard Locke is an American critic and essayist. He is a professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts and formerly served as the first editor-in-chief of the redesigned Vanity Fair and president of the National Book Critics Circle.

<i>The Skies Belong to Us</i>

The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking is a 2013 narrative nonfiction book by the American author Brendan I. Koerner. It is a history of the "golden age" of aircraft hijacking in the United States from the first incident in May 1961 through January 1973. Hijackings during this period took place as often as once a week, with about 160 incidents in total. The book looks at the causes of the epidemic, some of the more famous ones and follows in-depth the story of the longest-distance skyjacking in American history, involving Willie Roger Holder and Catherine Marie Kerkow, a young couple who took control of Western Airlines Flight 701 on June 2, 1972, and ended up flying across the Atlantic Ocean to Algeria. It finally examines what brought the hijacking craze to an end in 1973.

<i>Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y</i> 1997 film

Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, a 68-minute-long film by director Johan Grimonprez, traces the history of airplane hijacking as portrayed by mainstream television media. The film premiered in 1997 at the Musée National d'Art Moderne (Centre Georges Pompidou ; and at Catherine David's curated Documenta X. "This study in pre-Sept. 11 terrorism" is composed of archival footage material — interspersing reportage shots, clips from science fiction films, found footage, home video and reconstituted scenes. The work is interspersed with passages from Don DeLillo's novels Mao II and White Noise, "providing a literary and philosophic anchor to the film". According to the director, "Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y's narrative is based on an imagined dialogue between a terrorist and a novelist where the writer contends that the terrorist has hijacked his role within society." The film's opening line, taken from Mao II, introduces the skyjacker as protagonist. Interspersing fact and fiction, Grimonprez said that the use of archival footage to create "short-circuits in order to critique a situation" may be understood as a form of a Situationist Détournement.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pan Am Flight 841</span> 1972 airliner hijacking

Pan Am Flight 841 was a commercial passenger flight of a Boeing 747 from San Francisco, California to Saigon, South Vietnam which was hijacked over the South China Sea on 2 July 1972, ostensibly as an act of protest concerning United States involvement in the Vietnam War as well as the expulsion from the U.S. of the South Vietnamese hijacker, a recent graduate of a U.S. university. The hijacking ended when the captain and passengers overcame and killed the lone hijacker after the plane landed at Tan Son Nhut Airport in Saigon.

The Skyjacker's Tale is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jamie Kastner and released in 2016. The film centres on Ishmael Muslim Ali, who received a disputed conviction of murder in the Fountain Valley massacre of 1972 before hijacking a plane to Cuba in 1984. It mixes interviews, including the first interview given by Ali himself since the incident, with dramatic reenactments of the hijacking.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Brendan I. Koerner." Contemporary Authors Online . Detroit: Gale, 2009. Biography In Context. Last accessed October 25, 2013. Gale Document Number: GALE|H1000188220
  2. ↑ The Yale Record. New Haven: Yale Record. November 1992. p. 3.
  3. ↑ Brett Forrest (August 3, 1999). "Brendan Koerner". Adweek – Southeast Edition. p. 12. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Brendan I. Koerner. "About Brendan I. Koerner". Microkhan. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  5. ↑ California Bookwatch, April 1, 2007, review of The Best of Technology Writing
  6. ↑ SciTech Book News, March 1, 2007, review of The Best of Technology Writing
  7. ↑ Jonathan Yardley (July 13, 2008). "Jonathan Yardley on 'Now the Hell Will Start'". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  8. ↑ James Fallows (July 21, 2008). "A wonderful new book: 'Now the Hell Will Start'". The Atlantic . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  9. ↑ Michelle Kung (May 23, 2008). "Now the Hell Will Start". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  10. ↑ Staff writer (April 15, 2008). "Now the Hell Will Start". Kirkus Reviews . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 Evan Ratliff and Brendan I. Koerner. "Longform Podcast #49: Brendan I. Koerner". Longform. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  12. ↑ Marc Graser (February 2, 2009). "Director grabs rights to WWII thriller". Variety . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  13. ↑ Brendan I. Koerner. "Piano Demon". Atavist . Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  14. ↑ Benjamin Wallace-Wells (July 5, 2013). "Theirs for the Taking". The New York Times Book Review . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  15. ↑ Dwight Garner (June 13, 2013). "Bonnie and Clyde, the Aerial Version". The New York Times . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  16. ↑ Daniel Stashower (July 12, 2013). "Book review: 'The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking' by Brendan I. Koerner". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on July 17, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  17. ↑ Héctor Tobar (June 20, 2013). "Fly the unfriendly skies with 'The Skies Belong to Us'". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  18. ↑ Jamie Kenny (August 3, 2013). "The Skies Belong to Us: a look at the era of airline hijackings". The National . UAE. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  19. ↑ Glenn C. Altschuler (June 28, 2013). "'The Skies Belong to Us,' by Brendan Koerner". SFGate . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  20. ↑ Jordan Smith (July 2, 2013). "Terror in the Skies". Bookforum . Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  21. ↑ Ilena Silverman (November–December 2002). "Ten Young Writers on the Rise". Columbia Journalism Review . p. 45. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  22. ↑ Mark Oppenheimer (October 6, 2010). "20 Non-fiction Writers Under 40". New Haven Review . Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  23. ↑ "National Headliner Awards 2003". National Headliner Award. 2003. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
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