Amy Ellis Nutt is a

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

-based journalist and a ''New York Times'' bestselling author. She was the recipient of the 2011

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high liter ...

for her reporting at ''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to ''The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of wh ...

'' on the 2009 wreck of the Lady Mary fishing vessel. She has also worked as a health and science writer for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' and a writer-reporter at ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

''.

Early life

Nutt was born on April 26, 1955 to David and Grace Nutt in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

, New York, and subsequently grew up in central New Jersey, where she was the third of five children. Raised in

Scotch Plains, New Jersey Scotch Plains is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. The township is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 201 ...

, Nutt attended

Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School (or SPFHS) is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school in Union County, New Jersey, United States, which serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from the Township of Scotch Plains and the ...

, where she graduated in 1973; Nutt was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2018. She attended

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, where she received a B.A. in English and Philosophy in 1977, before eventually matriculating to

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, where she earned a Master of Science in Philosophy in 1985. Afterward, she briefly worked as a philosophy instructor at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

Journalism career

After receiving her M.S., Nutt enrolled in Ph.D. programs at both

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and MIT, but lost interest and did not complete them. Afterward, she took a fact-checking job at ''Sports Illustrated'' during the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

. She remained with ''Sports Illustrated'' for nine years thereafter, eventually being promoted to a reporting position. During her time at ''Sports Illustrated'', Nutt pursued a Master of Science in Journalism from the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

, and has worked intermittently as an adjunct professor at the university since her graduation in 1995. In 1997, Nutt joined ''

'' in New Jersey as a staff writer, where she remained until 2014. During her tenure at the newspaper, she was a

Nieman Fellow The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists A Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

from 2004 to 2005, and a Ferris Professor of Journalism at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

from 2013 to 2014. Nutt was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for her series "The Accidental Artist," and won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in the same category for her story "The Wreck of the Lady Mary." In 2014, she joined the national staff of the ''Washington Post,'' writing for the health, science and environment team through 2018. She has published three books, two of which have become ''New York Times'' bestsellers. She has received a contract for a fourth book.

Books

* ''Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph'' (2011) * ''The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults'' (2015, with Frances E. Jensen) * ''Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family'' (2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutt, Amy Ellis Pulitzer Prize winners American women journalists Journalists from New Jersey Living people People from Staten Island People from Scotch Plains, New Jersey Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School alumni Smith College alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni 1955 births 21st-century American women