Please join us for this special Book Talk presentation hosted by the United Nations Association of New York
Clarissa Ward
Author of On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist
Moderator
Lucy Westcott
Emergencies Director, Committee to Protect Journalists
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Wednesday | 15 December 2021 | 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. EST
Register for this event here
Following her heroic reporting from the fall of Afghanistan, the Emmy-nominated reporter and CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward shares how she learned her remarkable craft in ON ALL FRONTS: The Education of a Journalist.
The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.
Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and was soon on assignment all over the globe. But nowhere does Ward make her mark more than in war-torn Syria, which she has covered extensively with courage and compassion. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward has covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and had a son. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective.
On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist — and of a changing world.
Note: readers can purchase the book here
From reviews of On All Fronts
“In On All Fronts, [Ward] combines grace, authority, and a humor so dry it evaporates on contact. Whether Ward is fending off the dissolute, lecherous Saif Gadhafi, son of the brutal former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, in a Moscow Mercedes, or confronting a jihadist leader with video evidence of an execution carried out by his men, she gives off the impression that the story is, above all personal considerations, sacrosanct... Ward shows an enduring faith in the power of reporting.”
— Annalisa Quinn, NPR
“Ward’s journalism skills shine, putting readers on the front lines. Readers interested in the life stories of intrepid women journalists and the nature of investigative, international journalism will be captivated by this engrossing account.”
— Library Journal
“[Ward’s] descriptions of her experiences at all the sites are vivid and precise… A thoughtful account of the excitement and pitfalls of war reporting.”
— Kirkus
“Ward details her often harrowing career in this page-turning memoir… Readers will come away with at least a basic understanding of multiple international conflicts. This is a wonderful addition to the list of recent titles about women working in war-torn lands.”
— Booklist
“Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, recounts her life in journalism in this insightful memoir… She details her often harrowing experiences that eventually took a toll on her physical and mental well-being… But it’s the connections she made with the civilians that really tell the story of these war-torn regions and demonstrate an empathy that makes Ward’s work so accessible… Ward surprises in this affecting insider view of international reporting.”
— Publishers Weekly
CLARISSA WARD
Clarissa Ward is CNN’s chief international correspondent. She has spent nearly two decades reporting from front lines in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Ukraine for ABC, CBS and Fox News.
A recipient of multiple journalism recognitions including two George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, nine Emmy Awards and two Edward R. Murrow Awards for distinguished journalism, Ward is the author of On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist (Penguin Press), which details her singular career as a conflict reporter and how she has documented the violent remaking of the world from close range.
Known for her in-depth investigations and high-profile assignments, Ward and her team were the first foreign journalists permitted to enter Myanmar nearly two months after a military coup earlier this year. She has since reported from India at the height of the country’s deadly second wave of coronavirus and most recently from Afghanistan, where she covered the fall of Kabul and got exclusive access to former US bases now in the hands of the Taliban.
In late 2020 Ward led the two-time Emmy Award-winning investigation of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s poisoning, even confronting a suspected member of the elite Russian toxins team at his home outside Moscow.
In 2019 her months-long, Emmy Award-winning investigation into Russia’s growing use of mercenaries (Putin’s private army) included the first on-camera interview with a former fighter for Wager, Russia’s most notorious private military contractor. After visiting a diamond mine with ties to a Russian oligarch in the Central African Republic, Ward and her team were followed and intimidated by a car full of Russians. After their reports came out, they were targeted by a Russian media propaganda campaign trying to discredit their reporting.
Ward has reported extensively in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, making multiple undercover assignments to the country. As one of the last Western reporters to visit rebel-held Aleppo, Ward was asked to address a UN Security Council meeting on the embattled Syrian city in 2016, stating “there are no winners in Aleppo.”
Ward has conducted many interviews with world leaders like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei as well as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former CIA Director and retired US Army Gen. David Petraeus.
Ward graduated with distinction from Yale University, and in 2013 received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. She speaks fluent French and Italian, conversational Russian, Arabic and Spanish and basic Mandarin.
LUCY WESTCOTT
Lucy Westcott became director of CPJ’s Emergencies Department in October 2021. She oversees CPJ’s assistance and safety work worldwide. Westcott joined CPJ in 2018 as the James W. Foley Fellow. During her fellowship, she focused on safety issues for women journalists in non-hostile environments and assisted with the creation of safety resources for journalists globally. In 2021, she played a prominent role in CPJ’s response to the Afghan crisis, including helping Afghan journalists and their families evacuated to Qatar. Prior to joining CPJ, Westcott was a staff writer for Newsweek, where she covered gender and immigration. She has reported for outlets including The Intercept, Bustle, The Atlantic, and Women Under Siege, and was a United Nations correspondent for the Inter Press Service. As a fellow with the International Reporting Project in 2016, Westcott wrote about gender and development in South Africa and Lesotho. She has reported from Egypt, Jordan, Cameroon, and the U.S. She has a master’s in multi-platform journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.