Welcome to ToddPitock.com

Forbes FYI cover photo and story, Discover and Afar cover stories by Todd Pitock.

“He is a writer of zest and élan.”
– Christopher Buckley, writing in ForbesLife

Welcome to my website, which includes a limited selection of writing samples.

I’m a general feature writer for national magazines. My stories, along with some of my photos that I’ve scattered through the site, have appeared in publications including Discover, Salon, ForbesLife, Golf Digest, Reader’s Digest, Golf Digest, The Discovery Channel Magazine, Jugglezine.com, Salon, Worldhum, the New York Times and the Washington Post, among others.

My topics are wide-ranging. I’ve interviewed with Nelson Mandela and street gang members in prison, and I’ve ruminated on the challenges of coaching little league and the myriad agonies of golf. I spent three years in South Africa and two in the Middle East, and have reported in several dozen countries, among them Iraq, Libya, Morocco, and Niger.

In Spring 2010, I received an Investigative Reporters & Editors Freelance Fellowship Award and won two American Journalists & Authors Awards (both as runner-up), one in the profile category for an essay on my late friend, Joseph Sherman (see in the essays/stories tab), and the other in the lifestyle category for a travel essay about finding traditional Berber life in Morocco (see in reporting). They follow the 2009 ASJA Award (”The Ice Bear Cometh” for profile; runner-up) and the 2008 ASJA Award (Science and Islam for reporting on a significant topic - first). My work has been selected by the New Yorker’s Jerome Groopman for Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008 and by the editors of Travelers Tales for Best Travel Writing 2008. Other recent awards include a Solas Award (gold) in 2007 and a Lowell Thomas (gold) in 2006. I’ve been a guest on CBS News, the Fox News Channel, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and Washington Post Radio, among others.

I live outside of Philadelphia.

You can reach me via email at todd@toddpitock.com
or call 610-525-2190