Don Van Natta

Don Van Natta Jr. is an award-winning senior writer for ESPN who contributes to the network's Emmy Award-winning show, "Outside the Lines." He is also the host and executive producer of "Backstory," a ESPN docuseries with episodes available to watch anytime on ESPN+. For four consecutive years, Van Natta's longform writing for ESPN was published in The Best American Sports Writing. In 2018, several pieces about the NFL by Van Natta, co-authored with his colleague Seth Wickersham, were finalists for a National Magazine Award; two of their pieces appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing 2018. He joined ESPN in January 2012 after spending 16 years as an investigative reporter at The New York Times, where he was twice a member of Pulitzer Prize-winning teams. At The Times, Van Natta was based in Washington, DC, London, New York and Miami. He began his career at The Miami Herald, where he worked for eight years. At The Herald, he was a member of a team of reporters awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of Hurricane Andrew. Van Natta wrote a first-person piece for the Herald about riding out Hurricane Andrew in a Florida City motel that was destroyed by the storm's 165 miles per hour winds. Van Natta is the author of three books, two of which were New York Times bestsellers: First Off the Tee (2003) about Presidential golf and Her Way (2007), an investigative biography of Hillary Clinton co-authored with Jeff Gerth. Van Natta's third and most recent book, Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, won the United States Golf Association's Herbert Warren Wind Book Award in 2012. First Off the Tee was translated into four languages; Her Way was translated into seven languages. In 2016, the Society of Professional Journalists named Van Natta a "Fellow of the Society," its highest honor recognizing "the highest standards" and "extraordinary contributions to the profession of journalism." He is also the founder of The Sunday Long Read newsletter, a popular weekly curation of the best longform journalism, and the co-host of The Sunday Long Read Podcast. He is a graduate of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ and Boston University. In 2000, Van Natta received a Distinguished Alumni Award from BU's College of Communication. In 2018, Van Natta was inducted into Don Bosco Prep's Hall of Fame. Van Natta lives in Miami with his wife, Washington Post contributing columnist Lizette Alvarez, their two daughters, Isabel and Sofia, and their pair of rescue black labs, Marley and Bailey.