The Atlantic Hires NYT Bestselling Author

Robert Wright, an award-winning author, scholar, journalist, and “web video pioneer” is going to work for The Atlantic as a senior editor. Beginning on January 3, 2012, he will join “Voices” on TheAtlantic.com, where he will have a dedicated blog and online presence.

“Bob is one of the sharpest and most original thinkers writing today,” said James Bennet, editor of The Atlantic in a release. “He can make sense of some of the most complex topics—faith, evolution, and politics, to name a few. He’s contributed stories to The Atlantic since 1988, when he wrote our cover story, ‘Did the Universe Just Happen?’ In recent years, Bob has emerged as a digital pioneer, and I’m thrilled he’ll now be adding his distinctive voice to our community of writers on TheAtlantic.com.”

Topics Wright will cover: politics, foreign policy, science, religion, and philosophy. There will also be video conversations, a format he popularized on the sometimes torturous Bloggingheads.tv: The release states, “The website, which Wright co-founded in 2005, was born out of a simple yet revolutionary idea: two people—from journalists to scientists to academics—in conversation on the day’s news.”

Wright’s most recent book is The Evolution of God, a NYT bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

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