“Generation Kill” author Evan Wright dies at the age of 59

Award-winning reporter and author Evan Wright, known for his immersive journalism about American subcultures and who wrote the book Generation Killwhose adaptation into the HBO miniseries of the same name he was co-responsible for, committed suicide last week. Wright was 59 years old.

According to the Los Angeles County Coroner, Wright committed suicide by gunshot wound to the head in an LA apartment building on July 12.

In the weeks before his death, Wright had been promoting the new Max documentary, Teen Torture, Inc.in which he is interviewed about his time at The Seed, a South Florida-based so-called “scared straight” program for at-risk youth. In posts on X.com last week, Wright wrote about his experiences and the connection he feels with other survivors of the controversial programs, many of which have been shut down and re-investigated as the lifelong trauma that can result from the extreme abuse endured by those sent to these facilities is recognized.

“When I see victims of these schemes speak out, I always think, ‘That’s my brother or sister.’ I feel a connection to anyone who has gone through that. Then I saw Paris Hilton’s testimony and realized, ‘Oh shit, she’s my sister too?’ But yes, we are one big messed up family,” Write wrote in a July 11 post, referring to Hilton’s testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in June.

The reporting behind it Generation KillWright’s 2004 memoir about his time with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan during his deployment to Rolling Stone He received a National Magazine Award for outstanding journalism that same year for his articles for the magazine. “The Killer Elite” follows the platoon of Bravo Company’s 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, or, as the book’s promotional text puts it, the “proud, hardened professionals who deal in that most specialized of all American exports: ultraviolence” at the height of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror.”

“We have lost a great journalist and storyteller. Evans’ contributions to the script and filming of Generation Kill were fundamental,” David Simon, showrunner of this series and for The cablewrote on social media on Sunday. “He was charming, funny and not at all wild, like many reporters. So many unforgettable moments writing in Baltimore and on set in Africa.”

Wright wrote four more books during his career: Hella Nation: Searching for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking with the Side Pipe, Wingnut’s War Against the GAP and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America is a 2009 collection of reports on various subcultures in Rolling Stone And Vanity Fair; American Desperado: My Life – From Mafioso to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Agent (with Jon Roberts) from 2011 is an account of the latter’s life as the so-called “transport chief” of the Medellin cartel; and How to get away with murder in Americahis 2012 book about the CIA agent at the center of a major FBI investigation.

Wright was born in Cleveland and raised in Willoughby, Ohio by his parents, both lawyers. He was expelled from the Hawken preparatory school for selling marijuana and then sent to The Seed, where he was abused by the facility’s unlicensed staff. He attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he earned a degree in medieval history.

As a journalist, he began his career interviewing South African leader and Zulu prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and worked for a time as an entertainment editor and reviewed porn at HustlerWright soon began writing long articles about controversial people and topics for national newspapers, in a style The New York Times said it was “nuanced and detailed” but also added gallows humor.

Wright leaves behind his wife Kelli and three children.