Lawrence Wright

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Lawrence Wright born, August 2,1947, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and a current fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. He is a graduate of Tulane University, and for two years, taught at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Wright is the author of six books, but is best known for his 2006 book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. A quick bestseller, The Looming Tower was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and is frequently referenced by media pundits (including radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt) as an excellent source of background information on Al Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The title "The Looming Tower" is a phrase from the Koran.

Among Wright's other books is Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory (1994), about the Paul Ingram false memory case. On June 7, 1996, Wright testified at Ingram's pardon hearing.

Wright also co-wrote the screenplay for the film The Siege, which was released in 1998. The Siege anticipated many of the conditions of the post-9/11 world, including the loss of civil liberties in the response to terrorism; terrorist bombings in New York City; torture as a response to terrorism; independent cells of terrorists; and the inability to identify quickly or easily enough the non-state actors engaged in terrorism on American soil.