Name T. English | Role Author | |
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Nominations Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime Books Havana Nocturne: How the, Where the Bodies Were Buri, Paddy Whacked, The Savage City: Rac, The Westies | ||
T J English -- The Pursuit of American Dreams
T. J. English (born 6 October 1957) is an Irish American author and journalist known primarily for his non-fiction books about organized crime, criminal justice and the American underworld.
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Biography
T. J. English was born in Tacoma, Washington and grew up in an Irish Catholic family of ten children. His father was a steelworker and his mother a social worker for Catholic Charities. After graduating from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1980, English worked as a high school teacher in East Lost Angeles. In 1981, he moved to New York City to pursue a career as a writer, working in a series of odd jobs including bartender, janitor, and most notably, taxi driver for three years, while working as a freelance journalist. Of driving a taxi English has said, "I think of it as a metaphor for what I do as a writer."
Journalism
In the 1980s, while driving a taxi at night, English wrote for Irish America magazine, which led to his first book, The Westies. Later, he wrote a series of articles for Playboy entitled "The New Mob", which explored the new face of organized crime. He went on to write major feature articles for Esquire, New York Magazine, The Village Voice, the now-defunct Brooklyn Bridge Magazine, and many other publications.
In 2010, English wrote “Dope”, an article for Playboy, about a DEA agent in Cleveland who was indicted for framing innocent African Americans on bogus narcotics charges. The article was cited by the New York Press Club for Best Crime Reporting. With “Narco Americano", published in Playboy in 2011, English examined the narco war in Mexico after spending time in the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border area.
Other Writing
Also a screenwriter, English has written episodes of the television crime dramas NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Streets. He shared a Humanitas Prize with David Simon and Julie Martin for the episode “Shades of Gray".