UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An award-winning Penn State alumnus has authored his second book, which focuses on his life as an investigative reporter and front-line war correspondent now fighting a personal battle with terminal brain cancer.
Nordland, earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State in 1972. He started his career at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team honored for news coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear crisis in 1979. Later in his career, as chief foreign correspondent for Newsweek, he was the finalist in 1983 for the Pulitzer in international reporting.
He most recently served as an international correspondent at large for the New York Times. He was previously the paper’s Kabul bureau chief and has worked as a foreign correspondent in more than 150 countries.
While Nordland is no stranger to violent upheaval and witnessing tragedy, an incident in 2019, at the height of India’s erratic monsoon season, made those things much more personal. He collapsed during a morning jog, was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a brain tumor.
While confined to a hospital bed, Nordland said he found the strength to face personal conflicts. He reconnected with his estranged children and became closer with them than he ever thought possible. He repaired a friendship with a best friend that had been broken for 20 years.
The arrogance and certitude that previously dominated his actions was replaced by a sense of humility and generosity that persisted even after he left the hospital, he said. Nordland’s tragedy became, in his own words, “a gift that has enriched my life.”
His latest book, “Waiting for the Monsoon” was the result. In the 256-page hardcover, to be published by Harper Collins in March, Nordland shares details and insights about his personal battle. He currently lives in New York City, where he is receiving medical treatment.
Nordland received an Alumni Fellow Award in 1990 and was selected for a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. Nordland has earned two George Polk awards, several Overseas Press Club awards and many other honors. He received the 2016 Signet Society Medal at Harvard, where he was a Nieman Fellow. The medal is awarded for “outstanding achievement in the arts” and only rarely given to journalists; previous recipients have included T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost. He previously authored “The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo & Juliet” (Ecco/Harper Collins; New York, 2016).