C.J. Chivers Speaking Fee: $20,000 to $30,000

C.J. Chivers is an American journalist and author renowned for his in-depth reporting on conflict, military affairs, and the global arms trade. Born in 1964 in Binghamton, New York, he graduated cum laude in English from Cornell University in 1988 and was the valedictorian of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1995. Before embarking on his journalism career, Chivers served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps from 1988 to 1994, participating in the Persian Gulf War and performing peacekeeping duties during the Los Angeles riots. Chivers began his journalistic career at The Providence Journal, covering crime and politics from 1995 to 1999. He then joined The New York Times, where he reported from various conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Libya, and Syria. His tenure as Moscow correspondent from 2004 to 2008 further solidified his reputation as a seasoned foreign correspondent. Chivers is currently a long-form writer and investigative reporter for The New York Times Magazine and the newspaper's Investigations Desk. Throughout his career, Chivers has received numerous accolades for his reporting. He was part of the Times team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for coverage from Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2017, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his New York Times Magazine story “The Fighter,” which delved into the challenges faced by a Marine veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. His 2014 investigative report on U.S. soldiers' exposure to chemical weapons in Iraq earned him the Overseas Press Club's Best Investigative Reporting Award. Chivers is also the author of two books: The Gun (2010), which examines the history and impact of the AK-47, and The Fighters: Americans in Combat in Afghanistan and Iraq (2018), a narrative that follows the lives of six American service members over 17 years of conflict. His work continues to provide insightful and nuanced perspectives on the complexities of modern warfare and its human toll.