Bret Stephens

For Brett Stephens, a former Australian Rules Football player, see Brett Stephens.
Bret Stephens

Stephens in 2009
Born Bret Louis Stephens
November 21, 1973 (age 41)
New York City
Spouse(s) Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim (2003—present; 3 children)

Bret Louis Stephens (born November 21, 1973) is an American journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013.[1] He works for The Wall Street Journal as the foreign-affairs columnist and the deputy editorial page editor, responsible for the editorial pages of the Journal's European and Asian editions. From 2002 to 2004, he was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post.[2]

Personal life

Stephens was born in New York City,[3] the son of Xenia and Charles J. Stephens, a former vice president of General Products, a chemical company in Mexico.[4][5] His parents were both secular Jews. His paternal grandfather had changed the family surname from "Ehrlich" to "Stephens" (after poet James Stephens).[6] He was raised in Mexico City, where his father worked. In his adolescence he attended boarding school at Middlesex School in Massachusetts. After graduation, Stephens studied political philosophy at the University of Chicago. He earned a master's in comparative politics [5] from the London School of Economics. He is married to Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a music critic who writes for the New York Times. The couple have three children and reside in New York City.[7][8]

Career

Stephens began his career at the Journal as an op-ed editor in New York and later worked as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels. In 2006, he took over the "Global View" column from George Melloan when he retired. In 2009, he was named deputy editorial page editor following the retirement of Melanie Kirkpatrick.

Between 2002 and 2004, he was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed at age 28 – the youngest person to fill the role. He won the 2008 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism and the 2010 Bastiat Prize. In 2005, Stephens was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is also a frequent contributor to Commentary magazine.[9]

Stephens won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Commentary recognizing his 2012 columns for the Journal, citing "his incisive columns on American foreign policy and domestic politics, often enlivened by a contrarian twist."[1]

Stephens authored the book America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder (ISBN 978-1591846628), released in November 2014. The book presents the case that America has been retreating from its role as the "world's policeman" in recent decades, and that this trend will lead to ever greater world problems.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Commentary". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 17, 2013. With short biography and reprints of ten works (WSJ articles January 24 to December 11, 2012).
  2. ↑ "About Us". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  3. ↑ Born in New York City, per Bret Stephens, interviewed on C-SPAN2's BookTV program, After Words, 1-17-2015. "After Words: Bret Stephens, author of America in Retreat, interviewed by Bob Minzesheimer - Book TV". Retrieved March 24, 2015. ...FIRST OF ALL I WAS BORN IN NEW YORK AND WONDERING WHY WIKIPEDIA KEEPS INSISTING THAT I WAS BORN IN MEXICO. BUT I WAS BORN TO A FATHER WHO HAD BEEN BORN IN MEXICO AND HAD A FAMILY BUSINESS THERE...
  4. ↑ http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/glosses/profileOfBretStephens.html
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "WEDDINGS; Pamela Paul, Bret Stephens". The New York Times. September 20, 1998.
  6. ↑ http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124598062987558143
  7. ↑ Stephens, Bret (June 26, 2009). "Being Bret Stephens – Or Not". The Wall Street Journal.
  8. ↑ da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna (March 20, 2012). "Prelude and Fugue". Tablet: A new read on Jewish life.
  9. ↑ "Bret Stephens: Deputy editor, editorial page, The Wall Street Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 2, 2008. With some archive of WSJ articles.

External links