Shane Bauer

Last updated
Shane Bauer
OccupationJournalist
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Notable awards Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting (2017)
Michael Kelly Award (2017)
MOLLY National Journalism Prize (2017)

Shane Bauer is an American journalist, best known for his undercover reporting for Mother Jones magazine. [1] He has won several awards including the Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the National Magazine Award for Best Reporting.

Contents

Life

Bauer grew up in Onamia, Minnesota [2] and he is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. [3]

In July 2009, Bauer and two companions (Joshua Fattal and Sarah Shourd) were arrested by Iranian border guards after straying into Iran while allegedly hiking in northern Iraq near the Iranian border. The three Americans were held in prison in Iran on espionage charges for more than two years before their release in September 2011. They subsequently co-authored a memoir of their experience ( A Sliver of Light ), as well as the cover story ("Kidnapped by Iran") for the March–April 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine.

Bauer has worked as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Iraq, Sudan, Chad, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. His work has appeared in The Nation, [4] Salon.com, [5] the Los Angeles Times, [6] the Christian Science Monitor , [7] [8] and The New Yorker. [9]

In 2015 he worked as an undercover journalist for Mother Jones while employed for six months as a prison guard at the Winn Correctional Center, a private prison in Winn Parish, Louisiana managed by the Corrections Corporation of America (now known as CoreCivic). [10]

In 2016, he took on another undercover news assignment for Mother Jones, infiltrating Three Percent United Patriots, a right-wing border militia in southern Arizona. [11] [12]

Works

Books

YearTitle
2014 A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran [13] [14] [15] [16]
2018 American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment

Awards

YearTitle
2012James Aronson Award [17]
2013 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism [18]
2013Media for a Just Society Awards [19]
2017 John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting [20]
2017 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting [21]
2017 Michael Kelly Award [22]
2017 Izzy Award [23]
2017 MOLLY National Journalism Prize
2019 Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence In Journalism [24]

Fellowships

YearTitle
2016MacDowell Fellowship [25]
2017Logan Nonfiction Program Fellowship [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnfield, Louisiana</span> City in Louisiana, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evin Prison</span> Prison in Iran

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<i>Mother Jones</i> (magazine) American progressive magazine

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The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) was a nonprofit news organization based in San Francisco, California. In 2024, it merged with Mother Jones

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009–2011 detention of American hikers by Iran</span>

On July 31, 2009, three Americans, Joshua Fattal, Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer were taken into custody by Iranian border guards for crossing into Iran while hiking near the Iranian border in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Sarah Shourd is an American journalist, author and playwright. She is known for being an advocate against the overuse of solitary confinement in prisons. In 2009-10 she was held as a political hostage in Iran's Evin Prison for 410 days under accusations of espionage. She subsequently coauthored a book about the experience with her fellow hostages Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer. On Sept 14, 2010, the Iranian government released Shourd to the care of the Omani government. Shourd did her Bachelors of Arts in 2001 from University of Berkeley. She was also a UC Berkeley Visiting Scholar in 2014.

Masoud Shafiee is an Iranian lawyer. He is best known for serving as the attorney for three American hikers that were detained in Iran from July 2009 to September 2011. His specialty is representing clients in Iran with American-linked legal problems. Since the release of the Americans, Shafiee has been briefly arrested, interrogated and had his passport confiscated by the Iranian authorities.

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Winn Correctional Center (WCC) is a state prison for men, part of the Louisiana Department of Corrections prison system, located about 13 miles (21 km) southeast of Winnfield in unincorporated Winn Parish, Louisiana. It is within the Kisatchie National Forest.

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<i>American Prison</i> 2018 book by Shane Bauer

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment is a 2018 book by Shane Bauer, published by Penguin Press, about incarceration in the United States and the usage of private prisons.

<i>A Sliver of Light</i> 2014 memoir by Shane Bauer

A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran is a 2014 memoir by Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, and Sarah Shourd, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Eamon Dolan. It discusses the 2009–11 detention of American hikers by Iran.

The Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics is a journalism award presented annually by the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It was originally named Wisconsin Commitment to Journalism Ethics Award in 2010, and was renamed after journalist and alumnus Anthony Shadid who died in 2012. According to the Center website, "the Shadid Award recognizes ethical decisions in reporting stories in any medium, including print, broadcast and digital, by journalists working for established news organizations or publishing individually."

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References

  1. "Shane Bauer". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  2. "Friends and family tried to keep faith that Shane Bauer's nightmare in Iran will soon end". September 30, 2009.
  3. "Shane Bauer Puts the Teeth Back Into Undercover Reporting". Cal Alumni Association. 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  4. "Shane Bauer". The Nation. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  5. "The sex that helped us survive: Love and defiance in an Iranian prison". Salon. 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  6. "Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  7. "U.S. Embassy hit in Yemen, raising militancy concerns". Christian Science Monitor. 2008-09-18. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  8. "Shane Bauer | The Michael Kelly Award". www.kellyaward.com. 2017-04-10. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  9. "Shane Bauer". The New Yorker. 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  10. "CCA employee was undercover reporter." Winn Parish Reporter . Wednesday March 18, 2015. Retrieved on June 27, 2016.
  11. "I went undercover with a militia on the US-Mexico border. Here's what I saw". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  12. "What A Reporter Learned When He Infiltrated An Arizona Militia Group". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  13. "In 2009, 3 Americans Went For A Hike, And Ended Up In A Tehran Prison". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  14. A SLIVER OF LIGHT by Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, Sarah Shourd | Kirkus Reviews.
  15. "'A Sliver of Light,' by Bauer, Fattal and Shourd". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  16. "Excerpt: "A Sliver of Light"" . Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  17. "Grants and Fellowships". Global Investigative Journalism Network. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  18. "2013 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism". Hillman Foundation. 2013-04-22. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  19. "The Winners of the 20th Annual Media for a Just Society Awards | Evident Change". www.evidentchange.org. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  20. "Mother Jones and ProPublica Win 2017 John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Awards". John Jay College of Criminal Justice. 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  21. "Mother Jones wins Shorenstein Center's 2017 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting". Harvard Gazette. 2017-03-03. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  22. "2018 Michael Kelly Award // Enter Today". The Atlantic. 2018-01-09. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  23. "The Annual Izzy Award". Ithaca College. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  24. "Shane Bauer Wins 2019 Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence In Journalism". The New York Public Library. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  25. "Shane Bauer - Artist". MacDowell. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  26. Gordon, Sarah. "Shane Bauer - Logan Nonfiction Program". logannonfiction.org/. Retrieved 2020-12-10.