Speaker Profile Thumbnail for Kenneth R. Rosen

Journalist and Nonfiction writer

Kenneth R. Rosen Speaking Fee: $10,000 to $20,000

Journalist and Nonfiction writer

Speaker Profile Thumbnail for Kenneth R. Rosen
Speaking Fee:
$10,000 to $20,000

Travels From:
BOS - Boston, MA

Primary Topic Category:
Journalists / News Media / Global Outlook / Current Events

Secondary Topic Category:
Authors & Storytellers

 

Kenneth R. Rosen Speaker Profile: At A Glance

Kenneth R. Rosen has earned a reputation writing award-winning essays and journalism exploring war, humility, violence, addiction, and mental health as an outspoken champion of underdogs and outcasts.

Ken spent his early life in and out of mental health and addiction treatment programs for young adults. During his teenage years, he attended programs that employed controversial therapeutic methods aimed at "redirecting" teenagers. His second book, TROUBLED, recounts his story of turmoil and redemption alongside the experiences of four other teenagers subjected to experimental treatment. Each year, thousands of teenagers deemed "out of control" are sent to wilderness programs, ranches, and residential treatment facilities across the country. These programs, catering to young adults with depression, anxiety, anger issues, sexual deviance, and substance abuse problems, often use unregulated and unchecked "therapies" resembling boot camps. Parents, desperate to help their children avoid prison or worse, pay costly tuitions for a chance to turn their lives around. But what is the real cost of "tough love"? Ken’s book exposes the profitable, largely unregulated behavioral correction industry and shares the stories of young adults it has failed. With the insight of an insider, Ken offers a nuanced portrait of coming of age, mistreatment, and redemption, while providing a sharp critique of an industry at the intersection of private health care and the prison system. In his speeches and presentations, Ken blends personal anecdotes with hard-hitting statistics to shed light on the realities of treatment, addiction, incarceration, and mental health in America today. Ken’s narrative essays have appeared in Tin House, The Rumpus, Narratively, and Creative Nonfiction, earning recognition in the Best American Essays anthology. His reporting has won the Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents, an AWC Clarion Award for Online Feature Article, and a Steven Sotloff Memorial 2Lives Foundation Security Training Scholarship. He was also a finalist for the Livingston Award, regarded as the Pulitzer Prize for writers under 35. His work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony (through the Calderwood Foundation Art of Nonfiction Grant), the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Fulbright Program, the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, the Fund for American Studies, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in partnership with John Jay’s Center on Media, Crime, and Justice, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the Logan Nonfiction Program at the Carey Institute for Global Good. Now a frequent contributor to WIRED, The New York Times, Harper’s, and The Atlantic, Ken divides his time between the Berkshires and the Dolomites.
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