B I O G R A P H Y
Before he became a full-time freelance writer in 1981, William Ecenbarger was a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and was part of an Inquirer team that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Three Mile
Island nuclear accident. In addition, he received the George Polk Award for a series of articles outlining abuses in the Pennsylvania Legislature.
He is a former contributing editor to Reader’s
Digest international editions. He is the author of Walkin’ the Line, a travel-history about the Mason-Dixon Line published in 2001, Glory by the Wayside: The Old Churches of Hawaii, a photo-essay book published in 2008, Kids for Cash, an account of a judicial scandal in Pennsylvania published in 2012, and Pennsylvania Stories: Well Told, a collection of magazine articles published in 2017. He is co-author of Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World (Wiley 2014) and Making Ideas Matter: My Life as a Policy Entrepreneur (University of Pennsylvania, 2013).
In addition, he has written more than 300 travel articles for magazines and major newspapers, won 13 individual awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and was named an SATW “Lowell Thomas Travel Writer of the Year.” He lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
"Bill Ecenbarger. To regular readers, one need say no more. Put that name on a
story, and they know that what awaits them is a small masterpiece of writing, wisdom and wit. To editors around here, Bill Ecenbarger is a godsend – a writer who covers an inordinately wide range of stories and turns in colorful, provocative manuscripts that you want to read out loud to anyone who will listen.”
– Fred Mann, Former Editor, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine
Island nuclear accident. In addition, he received the George Polk Award for a series of articles outlining abuses in the Pennsylvania Legislature.
He is a former contributing editor to Reader’s
Digest international editions. He is the author of Walkin’ the Line, a travel-history about the Mason-Dixon Line published in 2001, Glory by the Wayside: The Old Churches of Hawaii, a photo-essay book published in 2008, Kids for Cash, an account of a judicial scandal in Pennsylvania published in 2012, and Pennsylvania Stories: Well Told, a collection of magazine articles published in 2017. He is co-author of Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World (Wiley 2014) and Making Ideas Matter: My Life as a Policy Entrepreneur (University of Pennsylvania, 2013).
In addition, he has written more than 300 travel articles for magazines and major newspapers, won 13 individual awards from the Society of American Travel Writers and was named an SATW “Lowell Thomas Travel Writer of the Year.” He lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
"Bill Ecenbarger. To regular readers, one need say no more. Put that name on a
story, and they know that what awaits them is a small masterpiece of writing, wisdom and wit. To editors around here, Bill Ecenbarger is a godsend – a writer who covers an inordinately wide range of stories and turns in colorful, provocative manuscripts that you want to read out loud to anyone who will listen.”
– Fred Mann, Former Editor, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine