David Grann

Bestselling Author, "The Wager," "Killers of the Flower Moon" | Staff Writer, The New Yorker

History

New Yorker writer and bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, David Grann doesn’t just write about incredible people — he walks in their shoes. Whether crossing the ocean or trekking through the Amazon, Grann digs deep to give his stories a pace and intensity unlike any other. In his talks, Grann explores his creative process – from what initially inspires him to investigate a story to his painstaking research and then links the (often) forgotten histories to their relevance to today.

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Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, is a true-crime tale that unravels one of the most sinister crimes and racial injustices in American history. With more than 49 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, it was a finalist for the National Book Award and ranked #1 on both Shelf Awareness and Amazon’s Single Best Books of the Year. The PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book club, 'Now Read This,' selected Killers of the Flower Moon for their February 2018 read. Following a highly publicized bidding war for the film rights, Killers of the Flower Moon is set to be released in 2023, with Martin Scorcese as director and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

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Known for his compelling stories, Grann has been called “The man Hollywood can’t stop reading,” with four of his New Yorker articles adapted for the screen, including Trial By Fire, The Old Man & The Gun, starring Robert Redford, Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek, and The White Darkness.

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His next book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder is a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. With the twists and turns of a thriller Grann unearths the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

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Topics

THE ART OF STORYTELLING: BRINGING TRUE TALES TO LIFE

David Grann has been called the “Master of Nonfiction” for his process of obsessive research — from tracing the footsteps of a lost explorer in the Amazon to documenting the systematic murder of the Osage Indians in one of the worst racial injustices in American history. With six of his works turned into major motion pictures, Entertainment Weekly has called Grann “the man Hollywood can’t stop reading.” In this customizable speech or masterclass, Grann uses the same storytelling abilities to take audiences behind-the-scenes and illuminate how his tales are constructed — from the initial creative spark and the intense investigative reporting to putting words on the page and the famous fact-checking system at the New Yorker. Grann also illustrates why, in an age in which the truth is under assault, reported stories are so essential to understanding who we are.

HOW HISTORY TALKS: STORIES THAT WON'T BE SILENCED

In this spellbinding lecture, investigative historian David Grann illuminates how long-buried histories can come to life. He draws on his years of researching Killers of the Flower Moon, which documented the erasure of one of the worst racial injustices in American history — the systematic murder of the Osage Indians in Oklahoma for their oil money during the early twentieth century. He also interweaves lessons from his latest masterful work, The Wager, about how the crew of an eighteenth-century naval warship became shipwrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia and gradually descended into a state of depravity. There were warring factions, mutiny, murders, and cannibalism, undercutting the myth of the British Empire. After several survivors returned to England, they were summoned to face a court-martial. They had to tell a convincing tale — or they could be hanged. As in The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann highlights how powerful forces often whitewash uncomfortable truths. Yet, from moldering documents and oral histories, these truths can still eventually emerge to tell a powerful story — and awaken our conscience.

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: THE ARC OF JUSTICE

In this lecture, David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, illuminates how the struggle for Native American rights extends from the first contact with whites to the present day with Standing Rock. Grann highlights the saga of the Osage Indians, who once controlled the central part of the country. After being driven onto a rocky, presumably worthless reservation in Oklahoma, they discovered oil under their land and became the wealthiest people per capita in the world. Then, in the 1920s, they began to be mysteriously murdered. Grann documents how one of the most sinister crimes in American history connects to Native Americans’ current fight to control their land and resources.

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