Evan Wright, award-winning journalist and the author of Generation Kill, has died. Per Rolling Stone, Wright's cause of death was suicide. Wright was a long-time writer for Rolling Stone, traveling to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan to deliver first-hand accounts of the devastation of war. He wrote a series of articles on Iraq, titled "The Killer Elite." The series would earn Wright his 2004 National Magazine Award for Excellence in Reporting.
Wright would then expand his reporting prowess to the acclaimed Generation Kill book. That work would be adapted into a miniseries led by David Simon, who also created The Wire. Simon himself would honor Wright through his social media accounts.
"We've lost a fine journalist and storyteller. Evan's contributions to the scripting and filming of Generation Kill were elemental. He was charming, funny and not a little bit feral, as many reporters are. So many moments writing in Baltimore and on set in Africa to remember," Simon wrote.
Evan Wright, An Award-Winning Journalist And Author, Has Died
Nathaniel Fick, a former lieutenant prominently featured in "The Killer Elite," also relayed a message about Wright on LinkedIn. "After our first close-quarters firefight, I found Evan Wright counting bullet holes in the door next to his seat. He could have left at any time, gone back to Kuwait to check into a nice hotel and file his story, but he didn't. Instead, he spent many nights at the forward edge of the entire U.S. invasion," Fick's post begins.
"I knew Evan as a good and gentle guy in a place that was neither good nor gentle. He wasn't a Marine, but many of us who spent March and April, 2003 alongside him have thought of Evan for the past two decades as one of us. Rest in peace, brother."
Before his death, Wright had been promoting a project centered around "scared straight programs for at-risk adolescents" on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
"I was a 13 year old kid tryna escape a really abusive, alcoholic home —and instead — as is really common in America — I was branded a mentally-troubled criminal, threatened with incarceration and sent to a place of total horror and abuse that was funded by the government. This happened to me & about 9,000 other kids. Story I tell in this documentary on HBO MAX and subject of my next book."
