This image was lost some time after publication.

Who

The author of gritty literary thrillers and a former deputy editor of Harper's, Harrison is now a senior editor at Scribner. His wife is author Kathryn Harrison.

Backstory

After attending the Iowa Writer's Workshop—where met his future wife—in the late '80s, Harrison moved to Brooklyn, and sold his first book, Break and Enter, in 1990. While continuing to work on his novels, he joined the staff of Harper's, rising from assistant editor to deputy editor under the magazine's legendary editor Lewis Lapham. In 2001, after 12 years at the magazine, Harrison moved into book publishing and took an editorial position at Scribner. His standout projects at the publishing house have included Anthony Swofford's Jarhead (subsequently adapted into a Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle) and Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud.

Of note

Harrison has authored five crime thrillers—most of them fast-paced yarns involving torture and hijackings—which have received critical praise despite their unapologetic pulpiness. His books include Bodies Electric (1993), Manhattan Nocturne (1996), Afterburn (2000), and 2003's Havana Room. Martin Scorsese holds the film rights to Bodies Electric, but so far the project has languished in limbo.

Personal

The Harrisons live in a Park Slope brownstone with their children Sarah, Walker and Julia. Harrison wrote a lengthy piece for New York about the way he and Kathryn came to own the building—it was purchased for them in 1988 by Kathryn's grandmother on the condition that the couple have a baby immediately.