Forum on the Humanities and the Public World

David Simon, Writer and Creator of "The Wire"
"The Wire: The Audacity of Despair"

September 10, 2008
5:00 pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

webcast of talk

David Simon is a Baltimore-based author, journalist and writer-producer of television specializing in criminal justice and urban issues. After graduating from the University of Maryland, he worked as a police reporter at the Baltimore Sun. In 1988, after four years on the crime beat, he took a leave of absence from the newspaper to write his Edgar Award-winning book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991), which inspired Barry Levinson's Emmy Award-winning television program of the same name.  Simon also adapted his second book, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, into the Emmy-award winning HBO mini-series, “The Corner.” Most recently, he is the Creator, Executive Producer and Head Writer of the critically acclaimed original HBO series "The Wire."  

Mr. Simon is Writer-in-Residence at the Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley.

Links

Websites:
The Wire Official Website

Articles:
The New Yorker: “Stealing Life: The Crusader Behind ‘The Wire.’”

The Atlantic:"The Angriest Man In Television."

Video:
Speaking on Journalists and the Public Square at USC

Radio:
Fresh Air: “‘The Wire’s’ David Simon and George Pelecanos."

Fresh Air: “‘David Simon, at the end of his 'Wire'"

Interviews:
Interview with Salon magazine on finishing The Wire

Interview with Nick Hornby in The Believer