Peter Benjamin Hessler (born (1969-06-14)June 14, 1969) is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of four books about China and has contributed numerous articles to The New Yorker and National Geographic, among other publications. In 2011, Hessler received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition and encouragement of his "keenly observed accounts of ordinary people responding to the complexities of life in such rapidly changing societies as Reform Era China."

Early life

Hessler grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and graduated from Hickman High School in 1988. He studied at Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in English in 1992 after completing a senior thesis titled "Dead Man's Shoes and Other Stories." During his junior year, he studied in John McPhee's writing seminar. After graduating from Princeton, Hessler received a Rhodes Scholarship to study English language…Read more on Wikipedia