Rate My Professor Jeff Sharlet

Jeff Sharlet is the Frederick Sessions Beebe '35 Professor in the Art of Writing in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He earned a B.A. from Hampshire College. Sharlet is the New York Times bestselling author or editor of eight books focused on literary journalism and creative nonfiction. His latest publication, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War (2023), was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist for Nonfiction, one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year, and a New Republic book of the year. Previous works include This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers (2020), The Family—the basis for a 2019 Netflix documentary series of which he is the narrator and executive producer—C Street, Sweet Heaven When I Die, and Killing the Buddha (with Peter Manseau). He has also edited Radiant Truths and co-edited Believer, Beware (with Peter Manseau). Current projects under contract with W.W. Norton include Undone: An Incomplete History of Unfinished Stories, a collection of essays titled The Undertow, and North America, a book of words and pictures.

Sharlet's investigative reporting has garnered significant recognition, including the National Magazine Award for Reporting for his work on Russia's anti-LGBTQ crusade, the Molly Ivins Prize, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's Outspoken Award for coverage of anti-LGBT campaigns in Uganda. He has received numerous fellowships from MacDowell. Professionally, he serves as editor-at-large for Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) and has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Harper's, and Rolling Stone. His contributions appear in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Esquire, Mother Jones, Bookforum, and other publications. At Dartmouth, Sharlet publishes 40 Towns, a literary journalism platform, and teaches creative nonfiction courses such as Literary Journalism, Whose Story Is It?, and Why Write, Anyway?. His scholarship examines media, religion, and politics, contributing to discourse on contemporary American society.