Michael Leahy (born January 28, 1953) is an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and award-winning

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

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 '' The Washington Post Magazine''. He is best known for his latest

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

'' The Last Innocents'', which examines the tumultuous political and social change of the 1960s through the lens of the era's legendary

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

. Leahy has also earned recognition for his 2004 book '' When Nothing Else Matters'', which chronicles

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

superstar Michael Jordan's last comeback to the NBA. Leahy's stories have also been selected for the 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 editions of The Best American Sports Writing anthologies. His first book '' Hard Lessons'' follows the lives of six

Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on B ...

students, class of 1986, and deals with the challenges and anxieties of teenage life in modern America.

Early life

Leahy was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He is a graduate of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Career

A feature writer known for his intimate portraits of subjects, Leahy explores topics varying from politics to social issues to sports. He has written for ''

'', ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', ''

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties. By virtue of one of ...

'', and his work has appeared in ''

Washington Post Magazine ''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 ...

'', ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corpora ...

'', ''

Playboy Magazine ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' and ''

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 twi ...

''. Leahy has published three non-fiction books: '' Hard Lessons'' (1988), '' When Nothing Else Matters'' (2004) and '' The Last Innocents'' (2016). Along the way, Leahy has covered presidential

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

, rural poverty,

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's ...

in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

in sub-Saharan Africa, the housecleaner dubbed fisherman-savior of Elian Gonzalez, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

’s recruiting efforts amid the specter of the

Iraq war {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

scandals A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

, a nudist camp, his mother’s struggles with Alzheimer's, and the playing comeback of

legend Michael Jordan with the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

Awards and accolades

*His story on the life of a paroled child murderer spared execution in the early 1970s because of a Supreme Court decision that briefly rendered the death penalty unconstitutional won the Washington D.C. '' Society of Professional Journalists''’ Best Feature Story award. *In 2004, ''

GQ Magazine ''GQ'' (formerly ''Gentlemen's Quarterly'' and ''Apparel Arts'') is an American international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though articles o ...

'' named ''When Nothing Else Matters'' "the best sports book of the year" *In 2006, his ''

'' story about a single mother from Massachusetts who took her two young children across the country to meet their father – a

sperm donor Sperm donation is the provision by a man of his sperm with the intention that it be used in the artificial insemination or other 'fertility treatment' of a woman or women who are not his sexual partners in order that they may become pregnant by h ...

known to the woman for years only as Donor 929 – won honors from the ''Society of Professional Journalists'' as the best magazine story in the country for that year. *His sports work has been selected four times for ''The Best American Sports Writing anthologies'', published by Houghton Mifflin Company, which annually features the 25 best sports stories in the nation. *Leahy won the 2016

Casey Award The Casey Award has been given to the best baseball book of the year since 1983. The award was begun by Mike Shannon and W.J. Harrison, editors and co-founders of ''Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine''. Casey Award recipients *1983 – Er ...

for '' The Last Innocents''. The book was also nominated as a

finalist The final of a competition is the match or round in which the winner of the entire event is decided. In sports competitions following a knockout system, where only two individuals or teams compete in each match, the final is usually played between ...

for the 2017

PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing was awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to honor "a nonfiction book about sports."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, ...

; they have one child together.

Bibliography

*'' Hard Lessons: Senior Year at Beverly Hills High School '' (1988) *'' When Nothing Else Matters (2004) *'' The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers'' (2016)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leahy, Michael Living people 1953 births American sportswriters American male journalists Journalists from California Journalists from New Jersey Sportswriters from California Sportswriters from New Jersey The Washington Post people Writers from Los Angeles Writers from Newark, New Jersey Writers from Washington, D.C. Yale University alumni