Biography

Nina Burleigh is a journalist and the author of five books. She is currently working on an ebook single about women and the "Arab Spring" to be published in March 2012 by Byliner.

Her latest book, The Fatal Gift of Beauty, was a New York Times bestseller. In the last several years, she has profiled a wide array of subjects, including American politicians, Israeli archaeological forgers, an Arab feminist, a small-town Italian mayor murdered over slow food politics, asteroid deflection experts and Chinese immigrants to Italy.  She's written for numerous publications including Businessweek, The New Yorker, Time, New York, The New Statesman, New York Times and is a contributing editor at Elle. She has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, The Today Show, 48 Hours,  MSNBC, CNN and C-Span, on NPR and numerous radio programs. 

Nina was born and educated in the Midwest, has traveled extensively in the Middle East and lived in Italy and France. She covered the Clinton White House for Time and reported and wrote human interest stories at People Magazine from New York.
She is a an adjunct professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and has lectured around the United States, in Italy, and in Mexico. Her book, Mirage, published in 2008 by Harper Collins, was selected by The New York Times as an editors' choice and won the Society of Women Educators' Award in 2008.

The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Italian Trials of Amanda Knox, received rave reviews.

"An essential read for anyone interested in this case. More than a murder story, is a look into the dark and complex soul of Italy itself."--Douglas Preston, co-author of The Monster of Florence

"Stirring, compelling, and in the end a tragic tale worthy of Italian opera." --Joe McGinniss, author of Fatal Vision, The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro and The Rogue

"The global media, in its frenzied coverage of the sensational Amanda Knox murder trial, overlooked what Nina Burleigh has skillfully unearthed and analyzed--a compelling chain of evidence, subtle levels of significance. Her telling of the tale is clearly the only one that gets it right."--John Berendt, author of The City of Falling Angels and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

"A lucid, fair-minded account of the case. She shows, quite convincingly, that Knox and her co-defendant have been victims of a serious miscarriage of justice. Perhaps more importantly, she explains why, showing the case to be the product of cultural misunderstanding between Italy and the U.S."--Alexander Stille, author of The Sack of Rome

"[In] this powerful example of narrative non-fiction...Burleigh, who parses how the Knox trial was perhaps tainted, still presents a fair and unbiased portrait of a girl adrift in a foreign legal system and a culture rife with preconceptions about young American women." --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Burleigh's propulsive narrative and the many unsettling aspects of the case make this a standout among recent true-crime titles."--Kirkus Reviews