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Lawrence Wright: Master Storyteller

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Lawrence Wright: Master Storyteller

Introduction to Lawrence Wright. 1:52 min. Interview: Raymond Elman.  Post-Production: Lee Skye. Music:  Julie Maxwell.  Recorded via ZOOM.  10/2/2022, Miami & Austin.

 

LAWRENCE WRIGHT is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.

He is a graduate of Tulane University, in New Orleans, and the American University in Cairo. He began his writing career at The Race Relations Reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1971. In 1980, Wright became a staff writer for Texas Monthly. He also became a contributing editor to Rolling Stone. In 1992, he joined the staff of The New Yorker, where he has published a number of prize-winning articles, including three National Magazine Awards.

He is the author of eleven nonfiction books. His book about the rise of al-Qaeda, “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” (Knopf, 2006), was published to immediate and widespread acclaim. It has been translated into 25 languages and won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It was made into a series for Hulu in 2018, starring Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, and Tahar Rahim.

“Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief” (Knopf, 2013) was a New York Times bestseller. Wright and director Alex Gibney turned it into an HBO documentary, which won three Emmys, including best documentary. Wright and Gibney also teamed up to produce another Emmy-winning documentary, for Showtime, about the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

Wright has published two novels, “God’s Favorite” (Simon and Schuster, 2000) which was made into a Showtime movie starring Bob Hoskins; and “The End of October,” a bestseller that has been optioned for Ridley Scott to direct.

He co-wrote the screenplay for “The Siege,” starring Denzel Washington, Annette Benning, and Bruce Willis, which is based on a story by Wright.

In 2006, Wright premiered his first one-man play, “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” at The New Yorker Festival, which led to a sold-out six-week run off-Broadway, before traveling to Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. It was made into a documentary film of the same name, directed by Alex Gibney, for HBO.

Wright wrote and performed another one-man show, “The Human Scale,” about the standoff between Israel and Hamas over the abduction of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The Public Theater in New York produced the play, which ran for a month off-Broadway in 2010, before moving to the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv.

In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country, including “Camp David,” about the Carter, Begin, and Sadat summit in 1978; and “Cleo,” about the making of the movie “Cleopatra.”

Wright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as the keyboard player in the Austin-based blues band, WhoDo.

— https://www.lawrencewright.com/

 

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 9 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

“MR. TEXAS, A NEW NOVEL:    0:50 sec.  

Lawrence Wright’s latest novel, “Mr. Texas,” will be published by Penguin Random House in September, 2023.  Cover by the great New Yorker cartoonist Barry Blitt.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:   1:30 min.  

Where did you grow up, and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:   1:01 min.

When did you realize that your could write well?

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:   1:58 min.

Where did you go to school and what did you learn that still informs you today?

 

CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY:   1:06 min.

I read your New Yorker article about teaching in Saudi Arabia.

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:   0:55 sec.

What was it like to learn Arabic?

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:   1:13 min.

How was your transition from Egypt back to the United States?

 

BREAKS THE RULES:    2:27 min.

What was your parents’ reaction when you became a conscientious objector?.

 

SERENDIPITY:     2:05 min.

How did you get started at Texas Monthly magazine?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:26 min.

Tell us about Texas..

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:   1:35 min

When did you start using an agent?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:    3:56 min

How did you become a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine?

 

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED:    5:35 min. 

What inspired you to write about Scientology?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:10 min.

QAnon is almost like a fringe religion.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    3:03 min

Who were some of your role models and influencers in regards to storytelling?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   8:57 min.

After reading your Pulitzer Prize winning book, “The Looming Tower,” I watched two intelligence officers testifying before Congress, claiming they didn’t know information that was documented in your book.

 

CRITICAL THINKING:   4:16 min. 

What is your process for organizing content for your books and articles?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:44 min

Do people ever dispute the accuracy of your notes?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:     4:48 min.

How did you feel when two of your main characters in “The Looming Tower,” Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, were killed by the U.S. military?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    3:61 min.

What inspired you to write a novel about a pandemic, long before Covid 19 made its appearance?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    3:28 min.

Because I had already read and enjoyed your novel about a pandemic — “The End of October” — I was reluctant to read your non-fiction book — “The Plague Year” — about the real pandemic, which turned out to be an engaging page-turner. Why did Trump ignore the pandemic playbook created by the Obama administration?