David Grann

David Elliot Grann (born March 10, 1968) is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and author.

His first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was published by Doubleday in February 2009. After its first week of publication, it debuted on The New York Times bestseller list at No. 4 and later reached No. 1. Grann's articles have been collected in several anthologies, including What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, The Best American Crime Writing of 2004 and 2005, and The Best American Sports Writing of 2003 and 2006.

Early life Grann was born on March 10, 1968, to publishing executive Phyllis E. Grann and oncologist Victor Grann. Grann has two siblings, Edward and Alison.

Career He graduated from Connecticut College in 1989 with a B.A. in Government. While still in college, Grann received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and conducted research in Mexico, where he began his career as a freelance journalist. At that point primarily interested in fiction, Grann hoped to develop a career as a novelist.

In 1994 he was hired as a copy editor at The Hill, a Washington, D.C.–based newspaper covering the United States Congress.

In 2009, he received both the George Polk Award and Sigma Delta Chi Award for his New Yorker piece "Trial By Fire", about Cameron Todd Willingham. Another New Yorker investigative article, "The Mark of a Masterpiece", raised questions about the methods of Peter Paul Biro, who claimed to use fingerprints to help authenticate lost masterpieces. Biro sued Grann and The New Yorker for libel, but the case was summarily dismissed. The article was a finalist for the 2010 National Magazine Award.

The Lost City of Z

Grann's 2009 non-fiction book The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon recounts the odyssey of the notable British explorer, Captain Percy Fawcett who, in 1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon while looking for the Lost City of Z. For decades, explorers and scientists have tried to find evidence of both his party and the Lost City of Z. Grann also trekked into the Amazon. In his book, he reveals new evidence about how Fawcett died and shows that "Z" may have existed.

Killers of the Flower Moon

In March 2014, Grann said he was working on a new book about the Osage Indian murders, considered "one of the most sinister crimes in American history." His book Killers of the Flower Moon: An American Crime and the Birth of the FBI was published in 2017, chronicling "a tale of murder, betrayal, heroism and a nation's struggle to leave its frontier culture behind and enter the modern world." It was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award and later became #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The film adaptation, Killers of the Flower Moon, was directed by Martin Scorsese and released in October 2025.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, was published in April 2025. It debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list and the hardcover stayed on the list for 65 weeks. A reviewer in The Guardian wrote, “The Wager is one of the finest nonfiction books I've ever read. I can only offer the highest praise a writer can give: endless envy, as deep and salty as the sea." Former President Barack Obama selected The Wager as one of his summer reading books, a popular booklist he shares annually.

Other books

A collection of twelve previously published Grann essays, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, was published in March 2012.

Another book, The White Darkness, was published in October 2017.

Personal life Grann married Kyra Darnton in 2012. They have two children, and as of 2016 resided in New York.