Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger (born January 17, 1962) is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of infantry combat. He is the author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997) which was adapted into a major motion picture and led to a resurgence in adventure creative nonfiction writing.

He covered the War in Afghanistan for more than a decade, often embedded in dangerous and remote military outposts.

Junger graduated from Concord Academy in 1980 and received a bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan University in cultural anthropology in 1984.

As an accomplished long-distance runner, he spent a summer training on the Navajo Nation reservation and wrote his thesis on Navajo long-distance running and its traditional, pre-Columbian roots.

Junger began working as a freelance writer, often trying to publish articles on topics that interested him.

He often took other jobs for temporary periods of time to support himself.

Researching dangerous occupations as a topic, he became deeply engaged in learning about commercial fishing and its hazards.

In 1997, with the success of his non-fiction book, The Perfect Storm, Junger was touted as a new Hemingway.

His work stimulated renewed interest in adventure non-fiction.

The book received a large pre-publication deal for movie rights, was on the New York Times bestseller list for a year in the hardback edition, and for two years in paperback.

In 2000 Junger published an article "The Forensics of War," in Vanity Fair.

He received a National Magazine Award for this.

He continues to work there as a contributing editor.

He was later inspired to write A Death in Belmont (2006).

In early 2007, he reported from Nigeria on the subject of blood oil.

With British photographer Tim Hetherington, Junger created The Other War: Afghanistan, produced with ABC News and Vanity Fair.

It was shown on Nightline in September 2008 and the two men shared the DuPont-Columbia Award for broadcast journalism for the work.

The book War (2010) was drawn from his field reporting for Vanity Fair, that also served as the background for the documentary film Restrepo (2010) which received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Junger's works explore themes such as brotherhood, trauma, and the relationship of the individual to society as told from the far reaches of human experience.

Junger was born in Belmont, Massachusetts, the son of Ellen Sinclair, a painter, and Miguel Chapero Junger, a physicist.

Born in Dresden, Germany, and of Russian, Austrian, Spanish, and Italian descent, his father immigrated to the United States during World War II to escape persecution because of paternal Jewish ancestry, and to study engineering at MIT.

Junger grew up in the Belmont neighborhood, which he learned was the territory of the Boston Strangler.

His book War (2010) revolves around a platoon of the US Army 173rd Airborne stationed in Afghanistan.

Junger, along with Hetherington, used material gathered in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan for the book and to create a related documentary feature Restrepo. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize for a domestic documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.

On April 27, 2011, Junger was presented with the "Leadership in Entertainment Award" by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) for his work on Restrepo.

They divorced in 2014.

He is an atheist.

Junger co-owned a bar in New York City called the Half King.

Named after a Seneca warrior that played colonial forces against each other in the Seven Years War, the bar hosted in-house readings and photo exhibits and was favored by war correspondents and conflict photographers.

Junger's book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, was published in 2016.

Junger has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' book Tools of Titans.

His latest work Freedom, on the American ideal of the same name, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2021.

While much of Junger's writing is subjective and participatory, he strives to maintain a neutral point of view and avoids contemporary political discussion, especially around frequent subjects like economic inequality and war.

In 2021, he cited his "favorite quote" in an interview with The Guardian: "Journalists don't tell people what to think. They tell them what to think about."

Junger lives in New York City and rural Cape Cod.

He's married and lives with his wife and two children.

His first daughter was born in 2016 when he was age 55.

Previously, Junger was married to writer Daniela Petrova.

Rising rents made the business unsustainable, and the Half King closed in 2019 after 19 years of operation.

In June 2020, Junger had a near-death experience when his pancreatic artery ruptured while he was at home in rural Truro, Massachusetts.