Lawrence Wright

Previously a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and currently a New Yorker staff writer, Wright is author of the New York Times bestseller "The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11"; for which he won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction. Wright is the author of six other books. He's also a playwright and a screenwriter. His screenplay "The Siege" starred Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis and his play, "The Human Scale", was based on his time in Gaza and was performed at New York's 3-Legged Dog theater in October 2010. He also narrated his own documentary (based on "The Looming Tower") on HBO, "My Trip to Al-Qaeda". Wright is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and plays keyboard for the Austin-based band WhoDo.

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  • wrightmovie02

    My Trip to Al-Qaeda

    An official selection of 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA offers a crash course in modern Islamic fundamentalism. Wright's footage and interviews range from the radicalization of future al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri after he and other Egyptians were imprisoned for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat, to the rise of Osama Bin Laden (son of a wealthy Saudi contractor) after he fought the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s, to America's current dilemma as a superpower in danger of overextending its military presence in a region filled with militants who prefer death over life. MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA blends portions of Wright's play with backstage chats, archived television clips and footage of Wright's interviews of people with ties to al-Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist movement.

  • wrightbook01

    The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda's Road to 9/11

    A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright’s remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.

  • wrightmovie01

    The Seige

    The secret US abduction of a suspected terrorist leads to a wave of terrorist attacks in New York that lead to the declaration of martial law.