Kai Bird

Kai Bird

Kai Bird was born on September 2nd, 1951 and is currently 75 years old. Kai Bird was born in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Bird attended Carleton College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and Northwestern University where he received a Master of Science degree in journalism.

Kai Bird is known for writing in the Non-Fiction genre.

Kai Bird is an American columnist and author, and is best known for his works about the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, United States-Middle East political relations, and his biographies about political figures. Kai won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award for American Prometheus.

After Kai graduated from Carleton in 1973, he got a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which allows students to do one year of independent study outside of the United States. He used this fellowship to do a photojournalism project in Yemen.

His wife was awarded a Watson two years later, and they spent 15 months working as freelance journalists traveling through Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. They worked on weekly stories with papers like Hong Kong’s Far Eastern Economic Review and the Christian Science Monitor. They barely made any money, however they enjoyed the work they did. From 1978 to 1982, Kai was associate editor of The Nation magazine before becoming a columnist for the magazine.

Kai has also received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, a John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Grant for Writing and Research, a Guggenheim Fellowship.

In 2001-02, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

His book Crossing Mandelbaum Gate was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in the “Autobiography” category.

In 2016, he was the featured speaker at Carleton College’s opening convocation in Northfield, Minnesota.

He was appointed Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer at CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy Center for Biography in 2017 in New York City.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a New York Times bestseller and a riveting account of one of history’s most paradoxical and essential figures. The book inspired Christopher Nolan’s Oscar winning movie Oppenheimer. It is the definitive biography about J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, this brilliant physicist that led the efforts to build the atomic bomb for his country during a time of war, and later found himself facing the moral consequences of scientific progress.

In an acclaimed and magisterial biography 25 years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture the life and times of Oppenheimer, from his central role in the Cold War as well as his early career. This is the history and biography at its finest, while being both deeply informative and riveting.

Kai Bird: Awards & Accolades

Bird's book, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs & Israelis 1956-78 was nominated for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Nonfiction, in 2011.

Kai Bird: Lists & Other Mentions

• American Prometheus:
  1. USA Today: #1 Non-Fiction Best Seller in 2023.
  2. New York Times: #1 Nonfiction Best Seller in 2023.

Related Authors

Fans of Kai Bird also enjoy these authors:

1. Erik Larson, author of: The Devil in the White City.
2. Isaac Asimov, author of the Foundation Series.
3. Bill Bryson, author of the Bill Bryson Travel Books.
4. Walter Isaacson, author of: Steve Jobs.
5. Mary Roach, author of the Mary Roach Medical Books.
6. Rebecca Skloot, author of: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
7. Simon Winchester, author of: The Professor and the Madman.
8. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of: The Emperor of All Maladies.
9. Sam Kean, author of: The Disappearing Spoon.
10. Steven Johnson, author of: The Ghost Map.

Kai Bird: F.A.Q