About

DAVID BELIEVES EVERYONE HAS A STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD

David
Chrisinger

David is hard at work on a book about famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle for Penguin Press titled The Unhappy Warrior: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II, due out in 2023. 

Earlier this year, Johns Hopkins University Press published David’s latest book, Stories Are What Save Us: A Survivor’s Guide to Writing About Trauma. Part writer’s guidebook, part memoir, and part teacher’s handbook, this profoundly moving and compelling book weaves together David’s journey as a writer, editor, and teacher with a wide range of craft tools and storytelling structures he and his students have used to process trauma and conflicts in their own lives to create beautiful stories of growth and transformation.

David is a Logan Nonfiction Fellow and contributes to the New York Times Magazine and The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom educating the public on military service, war, and its impact.

David's writing has been published in several anthologies and various outlets, including the New York Times Magazine.

After graduating from the University of Chicago with a Master’s degree in social science theory, David wrote and edited public policy reports for the Government Accountability Office. For nearly a decade, he helped turn complex data into relatable narratives for the U.S. Congress. The topics his research and writing covered included public education, retirement security; social policy; and issues related to military veterans’ transitions back into civilian life.

See Me for Who I Am

From 2014-2017, David taught the first-of-its-kind writing seminar for student veterans at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In 2017, he wrote an instructor’s manual for his class that is now available for adoption by every campus in the University of Wisconsin system. David also edited a collection of his student’s essays, titled See Me for Who I Am, that is helping to bridge the cultural gap dividing his students from those who have never served.

Public Policy Writing That Matters

For six years, David also taught public policy writing in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. In 2017, he wrote Public Policy Writing That Matters, a book for anyone passionate about using writing to create real and lasting change. Johns Hopkins University Press will publish the second edition on February 1, 2022. He is also co-writing Because Data Can’t Speak for Itself, with Lauren Brodsky of Harvard’s Kennedy School.