Shane Bauer

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title: "Shane Bauer" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["21st-century-american-journalists", "american-investigative-journalists", "21st-century-american-male-journalists", "university-of-california,-berkeley-alumni", "living-people", "corecivic-people", "american-prison-officers", "inmates-of-evin-prison", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "american-people-imprisoned-in-iran", "foreign-nationals-imprisoned-in-iran"] description: "American journalist" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Bauer" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American journalist ::

::data[format=table title="infobox writer"]

Field	Value
name	Shane Bauer
image	Shane Bauer 9210128.jpg
occupation	Journalist
nationality	American
alma_mater	University of California, Berkeley
awards	Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting (2017)
Michael Kelly Award (2017)
MOLLY National Journalism Prize (2017)
::

|name=Shane Bauer |image = Shane Bauer 9210128.jpg |occupation=Journalist |nationality=American |alma_mater=University of California, Berkeley |awards=Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting (2017) Michael Kelly Award (2017) MOLLY National Journalism Prize (2017) Shane Bauer is an American journalist, best known for his undercover reporting for Mother Jones magazine. He has won several awards including the Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the National Magazine Award for Best Reporting.

Life

Bauer grew up in Onamia, Minnesota and he is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

In July 2009, Bauer and two companions (Joshua Fattal and Sarah Shourd) were arrested by Iranian border guards after straying into Iran while allegedly hiking in northern Iraq near the Iranian border. The three Americans were held in prison in Iran on espionage charges for more than two years before their release in September 2011. They subsequently co-authored a memoir of their experience (A Sliver of Light), as well as the cover story ("Kidnapped by Iran") for the March–April 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine.

Bauer has worked as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Iraq, Sudan, Chad, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. His work has appeared in The Nation, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and The New Yorker.

In 2015 he worked as an undercover journalist for Mother Jones while employed for six months as a prison guard at the Winn Correctional Center, a private prison in Winn Parish, Louisiana managed by the Corrections Corporation of America (now known as CoreCivic).

In 2016, he took on another undercover news assignment for Mother Jones, infiltrating Three Percent United Patriots, a right-wing border militia in southern Arizona.

Works

Books

::data[format=table title=""]

Year	Title
2014	A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
2018	American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
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Awards

::data[format=table]

Year	Title
2012	James Aronson Award
2013	Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism
2013	Media for a Just Society Awards
2017	John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting
2017	Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
2017	Michael Kelly Award
2017	Izzy Award
2017	MOLLY National Journalism Prize
2019	Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence In Journalism
::

Fellowships

::data[format=table]

Year	Title
2016	MacDowell Fellowship
2017	Logan Nonfiction Program Fellowship
::

References

References

1. "Shane Bauer".
2. (September 30, 2009). "Friends and family tried to keep faith that Shane Bauer's nightmare in Iran will soon end".
3. (2017-03-28). "Shane Bauer Puts the Teeth Back Into Undercover Reporting". Cal Alumni Association.
4. (2010-04-02). "Shane Bauer".
5. (2014-03-19). "The sex that helped us survive: Love and defiance in an Iranian prison". Salon.
6. "Los Angeles Times".
7. (2008-09-18). "U.S. Embassy hit in Yemen, raising militancy concerns". Christian Science Monitor.
8. (2017-04-10). "Shane Bauer {{!}} The Michael Kelly Award".
9. (2020-11-16). "Shane Bauer".
10. "[http://www.winnparishenterprise.com/articles/2015/03/18/cca-employee-was-undercover-reporter CCA employee was undercover reporter]." ''[[Winn Parish Reporter]]''. Wednesday March 18, 2015. Retrieved on June 27, 2016.
11. "I went undercover with a militia on the US-Mexico border. Here's what I saw.". Mother Jones.
12. "What A Reporter Learned When He Infiltrated An Arizona Militia Group". NPR.org.
13. "In 2009, 3 Americans Went For A Hike, And Ended Up In A Tehran Prison". NPR.org.
14. "A SLIVER OF LIGHT by Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, Sarah Shourd {{!}} Kirkus Reviews".
15. "'A Sliver of Light,' by Bauer, Fattal and Shourd". SFGate.
16. "Excerpt: "A Sliver of Light"".
17. "Grants and Fellowships".
18. (2013-04-22). "2013 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism".
19. "The Winners of the 20th Annual Media for a Just Society Awards {{!}} Evident Change".
20. (2017-01-18). "Mother Jones and ProPublica Win 2017 John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Awards".
21. (2017-03-03). "Mother Jones wins Shorenstein Center's 2017 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting".
22. (2018-01-09). "2018 Michael Kelly Award // Enter Today".
23. "The Annual Izzy Award".
24. "Shane Bauer Wins 2019 Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence In Journalism".
25. "Shane Bauer - Artist".
26. Gordon, Sarah. "Shane Bauer - Logan Nonfiction Program".

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