Bio

John Wade Christensen

John Wade Christensen is the author of "Coming Home: A Stranger in the Smokies," "Perfect Swing, Imperfect Lies: The Legacy of Golf’s Longest Hitter" and "Serve: The Washington Tennis & Education Foundation Story."

He assisted with the writing and editing of "Moloka'i: An Island in Time," and contributed to books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Hurricane Katrina.

As a journalist, he has written for The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, Atlanta Magazine, Northeast Magazine and newspapers in Atlanta, Hartford, Honolulu, Louisville, Providence and Winston-Salem. He also contributed to the websites for two CNN-TV specials: "Millennium," and the award-winning series, "The Cold War."

He won a national award for magazine writing and has been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes three times.

His assignments have included rafting the Ohio River, canoeing the Boundary Waters, kayaking the Na Pali coast and flying in an F-4f Phantom fighter jet. He was arrested and jailed while reporting on a story, and exonerated two trials later.

He has hitchhiked cross-country, was present at three shootings, survived two life-threatening incidents, broke a board with his hands, ran a marathon and walked barefoot across 20 feet of glowing coals.

He interviewed a Nobel Prize laureate (Linus Pauling); two Pulitzer Prize winners (Leon Edel and W.S. Merwin); two precocious 19-year-olds (Magic Johnson and Yo-Yo Ma); three baseball Hall of Famers (Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays) and a quarterback who won four Super Bowls (Joe Montana). He interviewed Formula 1 world champion Jackie Stewart and marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle after her world record walk on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Other interviews include artist Billy Al Bengston, photographer Aaron Siskind and sculptor Isamu Noguchi; musicians Count Basie, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, the Allman Brothers, Tammy Wynette and ZZ Top; athletes Julius Erving, John McEnroe, and Sugar Ray Leonard; golfer Gene Sarazen; authors Frank Herbert, Carl Sagan, Philip Caputo, Lisa Birnbach, Emily Giffin and Michael Pollan; and poets Galway Kinnell, Gary Snyder, James Merrill and Diane Wakoski.

Also, spiritual authors Deepak Chopra, Ram Dass, Neale Donald Walsch and Paul Reps; the first man to reach the top of Mt. Everest (with Hilary), Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, and the first man to ski down Everest, Yuichiro Miura; supermodels Jerry Hall and Marie Helvin; TV personality Dick Clark; and actor Vincent Price.

He has also had personal encounters with Muhammad Ali, Jane Fonda, Woody Harrelson Janet Jackson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As an actor, he has appeared in forty-seven commercials and hosted an academic video series. His website is www.johnchristensenonline.com.