Howard W. French facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Howard French
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| Born |
Howard Waring French
October 14, 1957 Washington, D.C., U.S.
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| Occupation | journalist, author, photographer, Columbia University professor |
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Notable credit(s)
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The New York Times; A Continent for the Taking (book) |
| Spouse(s) | Agnès French |
Howard Waring French (born October 14, 1957) is an American journalist, author, and photographer. He is also a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 2008. Before teaching, he worked for a long time as a foreign correspondent and senior writer for The New York Times.
Contents
Howard French's Early Life and Career
Howard French was a university teacher in the Ivory Coast during the 1980s. After that, he became a reporter. He wrote many stories about important events in Western and Central Africa. These reports helped him write his book, A Continent for the Taking.
French also reported on major events in China. He covered the growth of community groups and important events like the Dongzhou protests of 2005. He also reported on the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. From 2003 to 2008, he was the head of The New York Times' office in Shanghai, China.
Reporting Around the World
French started working for The New York Times in 1986. From 1990 to 1994, he was the head of their office for the Caribbean and Central America. He reported from countries like Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. He was one of the first Black correspondents for the newspaper.
From 1994 to 1998, French covered West and Central Africa for the Times. He reported on conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Central Africa. He also paid special attention to the fall of Zaire's longtime leader, Mobutu Sese Seko.
From 1998 to 2003, French was the head of the Times' office in Tokyo, Japan. He covered news from Japan and the Koreas.
Languages and Other Writings
Besides English, Howard French speaks Mandarin, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He became the Tokyo bureau chief in 1999. This was after he spent a year studying Japanese at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
He has often written for The New York Review of Books. He has also written for The Atlantic, "The Guardian Longreads", and many other publications. While covering China, he also wrote a weekly column for the International Herald Tribune.
Books and Photography Projects
Howard French has written several books. His fifth book, "Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War", was published in 2021. His book before that was "Everything Under the Heavens: How China's Past Helps Shape its Push for Global Power" (2017).
French is also a photographer whose work has been shown around the world. He worked on a project called "Disappearing Shanghai." This project involved taking pictures of the quickly changing old quarters of Shanghai. A book with these photos, Disappearing Shanghai: Photographs and Poems of an Intimate Way of Life, came out in 2012. He worked with writer and poet Qiu Xiaolong on this book.
Awards and Recognition
Howard French has received several honors for his work.
Fellowships
- 1999 Jefferson Fellow, East-West Society, Honolulu, Hawaii
- 2011 Open Societies Foundation fellow
Honors
- 2016 Professor of the Year, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
- 2005 Finalist, Hurston Wright Award for Non-Fiction for A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa
- 2004 Honorary Doctorate - University of Maryland, for his writings on East Asia
Howard French's Published Works
- A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, Knopf, 2004.
- China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants are Building a New Empire in Africa, Knopf 2014. ISBN: 9780307946652
- Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power, Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. ISBN: 9780385353328
- Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, Liveright, 2021. ISBN: 9781631495830
