Charles Bowden


Charles Clyde Bowden was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Background

He attended the University of Arizona and then the University of Wisconsin, where he obtained his master's degree in American intellectual history; while there he walked out as he was defending his dissertation for his doctorate, annoyed by the questions asked him by the review committee. He was a writer for the Tucson Citizen and often wrote about the American Southwest. He was a contributing editor of GQ and Mother Jones magazine, and he wrote for other periodicals, including Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, High Country News, and Aperture.
Bowden was the winner of the 1996 Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, and a 2010 award from United States Artists. He grew up in Chicago but lived most of his life in Tucson, Arizona. He was known for his writings on the situation at the US–Mexico border and wrote often about the effects of the War on Drugs on the lives of the people in that region.
He died in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on August 30, 2014, after a brief illness. He was survived by his son and two siblings.

Selected works