Alumnus Daniel Bergner '89 Named 2021 New Arizona Fellow

New America recently announced its class of 2021 National Fellows, among them alumnus Daniel Bergner '89 who has been named a 2021 New Arizona Fellow. 

The New Arizona Fellowship is the result of a partnership between the New America National Fellows Program—which "supports...journalists, producers, practitioners, and scholars whose work enhances the public conversation about the most pressing issues of our day"—and the Center for the Future of Arizona, which "brings Arizonans together to build a brighter future."

According to New America, "fellows are selected on a highly competitive basis and serve—most on an adjunct basis, some full time—for a one-year term. During that period we aim to give them an intellectual home where they have the time, space, and resources to pursue their projects; a community where they can learn from one another; and opportunities to engage with others at New America." 

As a New Arizona Fellow, Bergner will receive funding between $15,000 - $30,000, the support of cohort gatherings, and access to helpful platforms and partnerships as he pursues his latest project—a book about "how we as a culture conceptualize mental illness." 

Bergner's most recent book, Sing for Your Life (Lee Boudreaux Books, 2016), chronicles the true story of Ryan Speedo Green, who went from a tough upbringing among drugs, violence, and incarceration to winning a nationwide singing competition hosted by New York's Metropolitan Opera at the age of twenty-four. Now he "performs major roles at the Met and Europe's most prestigious opera houses." The book was published to high critical acclaim, being named a New York Times's bestseller, a New York Times Book Review editor's choice and notable book of the year, a Washington Post notable book of the year, and Publisher's Weekly book of the year. 

Bergner is the author of four more books of nonfiction—What do Women Want?, The Other Side of Desire, In the Land of Magic Soldiers, and God of the Rodeo—as well as a novel, Moments of Favor. He is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and his writing has also appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harper's, Mother Jones, Talk, and the New York Times Book Review, as well as on the op-ed page of the New York Times. His writing has been included in The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction.