MARK PATINKIN
Mark Patinkin has been writing a column for the Providence Journal for over 45 years, starting in 1979 at age 26. Around 6,000 columns later, he is still at it.
Patinkin has written about famine in Africa, religious conflict in India and Beirut, and recently, the Gaza War. He covered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, where he was arrested by the secret police in Stalinist Romania for trying to interview a dissident and expelled from the country.
Closer to home, he has done columns on the pain of his unexpected divorce, brought readers into the operating room for his own recent kidney cancer surgery, and shared the hard journey of losing his father to dementia. He is also known for a lighter touch, including columns about his adult kids being embarrassed he tucks his Polo shirts into his cargo shorts while wearing high white crew socks and New Balance sneakers.
In addition to “The Holy Land at War,” Patinkin has written several previous books, including “An African Journey,” “The Silent War,” about the world’s most competitive companies, and “Just the Way He Was Before,” about a boy who lost both legs to bacterial meningitis but went on to play ice hockey.
Patinkin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting and was recently named columnist of the year for Gatehouse Media, now Gannett.
He won three New England Emmy Awards for weekly “video columns” for Rhode Island’s ABC affiliate.
He has received honorary degrees from both Rhode Island College and Johnson and Wales University.
Patinkin graduated from Middlebury College and lives in Providence.