“Walter has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors.”

― The Boston Globe

Bestselling author Jess Walter is renowned for his narrative versatility, seamlessly transitioning between genres and tones. Whether he is writing a witty caper like the national bestseller and Aspen Words Literary Prize finalist So Far Gone, a #1 New York Times bestselling “absolute gem of a beach read” (Huffington Post) like Beautiful Ruins, or a political satire taking place after a devastating terrorist attack (National Book Award finalist The Zero), his storytelling blends humor, pathos, and incisive social commentary. It’s no wonder that the Philadelphia Inquirer named Walter “a genius of the modern American moment.”

His newest is the hilarious and prescient So Far Gone, which earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was named one of The Washington Post‘s Books to Watch for in 2025 and is longlisted for the Mark Twain Prize. It is currently being adapted as a Netflix series, with Walter as executive producer. A provocative adventure through life in modern America in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis’s True Grit, So Far Gone follows a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren. Casting a gimlet eye on modern technology and regressive social developments, the novel “speaks directly into the profoundly troubled soul of our fractured, embittered country; miraculously, it does so with gentle wryness and angry love” (Lauren Groff, author of Matrix and Fates and Furies).

“So Far Gone is a marvel—a taut literary thriller that is also a moving, deeply humane exploration of the way one family falls apart and puts itself back together in a moment of crisis. Jess Walter is a prodigiously talented novelist, a writer willing to confront some of the most important and divisive issues of our time without losing his nerve or his sense of humor. “

―Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers

The Cold Millions, set in Walter’s hometown of Spokane, Washington during the early 20th century, is the portrait of a nation contending with the chasm between rich and poor. Winner of the Washington State Book Award, it was named a Best Book of the Year by The Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, O Magazine, and Publishers Weekly among others. The Cold Millions is “a page-turner, a postmodern experiment that reads like a potboiler, and a beautiful, lyric hymn to the power of social unrest in American history” (Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land).

Walter is perhaps best known for his #1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Ruins, which was on the list for 69 weeks, 5 of those at #1.  “A monument to crazy love” (NY Times), it is a roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives.  Beginning on the Italian coast in 1962 and rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later, “Walter’s turns of phrase are as brilliant as his plot twists, making for a compelling, fun read” (People). Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, it was also on several best-of-the-year lists, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire and NPR Fresh Air.

His 2006 novel The Zero was a National Book Award Finalist, PEN Literary Fiction Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. “The Zero could end up as the ‘Catch 22‘ of 9/11 … [with] its brilliant ironies, its deadpan truths, its insider smarts and its everyguy hero … (Walter) elevates The Zero above mere satire to Kafkaesque parable,” said The Wall Street Journal.

Walter’s celebrated collections of short stories, We Live in Water, which President Obama named one of his favorite books of 2019, and his most recent, The Angel of Rome: And Other Stories, distill the complexities of life into poignant vignettes, blending wit, irony, and sharp comedic timing.  Esquire writes, “these stories remind us that Walter is a national treasure.”

Walter began his writing career as a reporter for his hometown newspaper, The Spokesman-Review. His reporting there on the standoff at Ruby Ridge was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and became the subject of Walter’s first and only book of non-fiction, Every Knee Shall Bow. He has also worked as a screenwriter and has taught graduate creative writing at the University of Iowa, Pacific University, Eastern Washington University, and Pacific Lutheran University.

For more information on Jess Walter, please visit him on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or at his website.