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When Patrick Radden Keefe was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize for Empire of Pain, his exposé of The Sackler Family’s role in the opioid crisis, the judges praised its “moral rigour, its controlled fury, its exhaustive research, the bravery it took to write it … [and] its sheer propulsive narrative energy”. These qualities lie at the heart of Keefe’s oeuvre.
Trained as a lawyer at Yale and one of The New Yorker’s most decorated long-time staff writers, Keefe’s blend of scrupulous reporting, literary skill and deep commitment to truth and justice has helped bring untold human stories to light, systems of power to account, and prompted shifts in public understanding and policy debates.
From Say Nothing, his Orwell Prize for Political Writing-winning account of a civilian killing during The Troubles, to Chatter (dissecting global eavesdropping), The Snakehead (exposing illegal Chinese smuggling into the US), Empire of Pain and his newest work London Falling (investigating a teenager’s tragic end in the circles of the super-rich), it’s a remarkable body of work.
Jack Tame meets him in his much-anticipated first AWF appearance.
Supported by Platinum Patron Anna Gibbons.
