Blaine Harden’s most recent book is Escape From Camp 14. An international bestseller, it’s the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person born in a North Korean prison camp to escape to the West. Escape was the subject of a segment on 60 Minutes and has been translated into 24 languages. It won the 2112 Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique, a French literary award.

Blaine is working on a second book about North Korea and contributes to Foreign Policy, PBS Frontline and The Economist. He worked for The Washington Post as a correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as in New York and Seattle. He was also a national correspondent for The New York Times and writer for the Times Magazine.

Here are three print interviews with Blaine about Escape from Camp 14 and about his thoughts on writing and North Korea. The Spectator (London). Bookgeeks (London). Asian Literary Review (Hong Kong). And an hour-long television interview with C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb on Q & A.

Blaine is also the author of A River Lost. It’s about well-intentioned Americans (including the author’s father) who dammed and degraded the West’s greatest river, the Columbia.  An updated and revised edition of A River Lost was published by Norton in 2012 to coincide with a PBS American Experience program about Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia River. Blaine and the book are featured on the program.

Blaine’s first book, Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent, was described by The Independent (London) as the “best contemporary book on Africa.” Order

Journalism awards include the Ernie Pyle Award for coverage of the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, the American Society of Newspaper Editors Award for Nondeadline Writing (stories about Africa), and the Livingston Award for International Reporting (stories about Africa).

 

Blaine lives in Seattle with his wife Jessica and their two children, Lucinda and Arno.