Joseph Sanders Pearson (born 1975 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian essayist, cultural historian, and journalist.

Life

Between 1997 and 2001, Pearson received his doctorate in Modern History at the University of Cambridge. Pearson has taught in the humanities at Columbia University, New York University, the Berlin University of the Arts, and the Barenboim–Said Academy, a peace project headed by conductor

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...

. He is the nephew of children's novelist Kit Pearson.

Career

His history and portrait of the German capital, ''Berlin'', was published by Reaktion Press and University of Chicago Press in 2017. The Independent called ''Berlin'' "the last word in explaining not only Berlin’s incredible history, but also its present day cultural situation" and Bloomberg reported that the book "masterfully offers a close reading of the metropolis in all its brutal immediacy". The book was also positively reviewed in The

German Studies Review ''German Studies Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal and an official publication of the German Studies Association that is published triannually. It was established in 1978 and publishes articles on the history, literature, culture, and ...

. Pearson's new book ''My Grandfather's Knife'' was published by HarperCollins and The History Press in April 2022, with a Spanish translation by Planeta in October 2022. The book tells the stories of Second World War witnesses through everyday objects they owned. The Spectator reported the book "sheds intriguing new light" on the period’s history, while the book received positive reviews in the Literary Review of Canada and elsewhere, with Norman Ohler, author of ''Blitzed'', calling the book, "literary non-fiction at its best". A chapter from the book, regarding Nazi plunder of string instruments obtained by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, appeared in German in the literary review

Lettre International ''Lettre International'' is the title of a number of cultural magazines published in various languages in Europe. The history of ''Lettre International'' dates back to 1984, the year that the original French edition (''Lettre Internationale'') fir ...

. Pearson's work has appeared in Newsweek, The

New England Review The ''New England Review'' is an American quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. It was established in 1978 by Sydney Lea Sydney Lea (born December 22, 1942) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, editor, and professor ...

, the BBC, AGNI, Monocle Magazine, Prism International and many other publications. His non-fiction has been translated into German, French, Arabic, Mandarin and other languages. Pearson is based in Berlin, Germany, where he is the in-house essayist of the Schaubühne Theatre and the editor of ''The Needle'', one of Berlin's most popular blogs. He is a founding member of the artist collective, 'AGOSTO'.

Awards

In 2020, he was awarded a Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction (First Runner-up), for his story "An Iconostasis". The story was nominated in 2020 for the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

.Author's webpag
Retrieved 7 January 2021
/ref>

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Joseph 1975 births Alumni of the University of Cambridge Journalists from Alberta Living people Canadian male journalists Canadian male essayists 21st-century Canadian journalists Canadian expatriate writers Canadian expatriates in Germany Cultural historians Canadian male bloggers Historians of Germany 21st-century Canadian essayists 21st-century Canadian historians 21st-century Canadian male writers People educated at a United World College