Suzy Hansen (born 1978) is an American writer. Her book Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-America World was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Early life and education

Hansen was born in Wall Township, New Jersey to parents of Danish, Italian and Irish descent.^[2] She attended Wall High School^[3] and the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate degree.^[4]

Career

After earning her degree, she worked as an editor at The New York Observer until 2007, when she received a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to conduct research in Turkey.^[5] While in Istanbul, she realized many misconceptions of how Americans view themselves versus how outsiders view them. This was the basis for her 2017 book, Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-America World.^[6] Her debut book about American misconceptions post 9/11 was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.^[7]

She also visited Greece, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan to investigate how American influence caused trouble and misfortune for civilians in these countries.^[8][9]

In 2020, she accepted a visiting professorship position at Princeton University as their Ferris Professor of Journalism.^[10]

She is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and Practitioner-in-Residence at New York University’s Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.^[11]