Parkland

Emma González called BS. David Hogg called out Adult America. The uprising had begun.

Since Columbine unleashed an epidemic, we felt powerless to stop these horrors. America remains awash in guns. Parkland changed everything. These astonishing students had learned the lessons of Newtown, and struck back lightning fast.

Parkland chronicles the birth of a movement — the first real hope to finally end the scourge of the school shooter era, which began before they were born. How they channeled their anger into a movement is a remarkable story.

This is a completely different take on the tragedy than Columbine. That book was about what drove the killers, and how the community recovered. Parkland is about neither — I refuse to even name the pathetic killer, who is now irrelevant. This book is entirely about the response — the amazing March For Our Lives kids. It's about a way out.

New York Times Bestseller

Finalist

Goodreads Choice Award

Longlisted

ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal

"One of the most uplifting books you will read all year.”

Washington Post

Now in paperback

BEST BOOKS OF 2019

Vanity Fair

Washington Post

NPR Books

Goodreads

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

American Library Association

Book Riot

NPR's A1

New York Public Library

"This book is about the birth of something extraordinary: the birth of a movement, but also the rebirth of hope.”

New York Times Book Review

Starred Reviews

— Publishers Weekly

— Kirkus

— Booklist

My Story

Dave Cullen has been covering the blight of mass murders in America for two decades, first with Columbine, now Parkland: Birth of a Movement. Both were New York Times bestsellers. and Columbine is the consensus definitive account of the horror that inspired two decades of killers. Parkland takes a fresh approach, focusing on the response, and refusing to name the killer. It is story of hope: the genesis of the extraordinary March for Our Lives movement. Dave was with the MFOL students from the beginning, with unparalleled access behind the scenes.

Columbine made two dozen Best of 2009 lists and won several major awards, including the Edgar and Goodreads Choice Awards. It has been translated into six languages, appears on several all-time True Crime Top 10 lists, and Slate named it one of the 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the quarter century.

Parkland has made ten major year-end Best Lists, been nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award (Best Nonfiction of 2019), and longlisted for the ALA's Andrew Carnegie Medal For Excellence.

Dave has written for New York Times, London Times, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, Politico, Guardian, Washington Post, New Republic, Newsweek, Daily Beast, Slate, Salon, The Millions, Lapham's Quarterly, etc., and has appeared on most of the major networks in the US, and across Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.

Dave is a former gay army infantry grunt. Parkland struck while he was in year 18 of a book about two gay soldiers. He will finish that soon. Dave wrote Columbine in Colorado, then moved to NYC. He is uncle to 11 cool humans and 1 adorable corgi, Bobby Sneakers.

The Mass Shooter Era

Origin Story

"More important now than ever."

— Esquire, 2018

A Way Out

"One of the most uplifting books you will read all year."

— Washington Post, 2019

Reviews

To Columbine Reviews

Parkland Reviews

Starred Review

Cullen has produced masterpieces that are simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful about a saner future.

— Kirkus

Starred Review

The author of the groundbreaking Columbine, brings his eloquence, expertise, combination of deep research and concision, and unbiased perspective to yet another mass school shooting, revealing its deepest layers and resonance. . . .

This moving, defining, and important account
of an essential and vital youth movement dedicated to change and saving lives belongs in every public and school library.

— Booklist

Starred Review

In this page-turner, something hopeful has risen phoenixlike from the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre. . . . Both realistic and optimistic, this insightful and compassionate chronicle is a fitting testament to a new chapter in American responses to mass shootings.

— Publishers Weekly

10 authors to read in 2019

— AppleBooks

Exceptional

It's exceptional. I really look forward to it being unleashed to the world, because the Parkland students really did something. They are a political force to be reckoned with in our country.

— Elise Jordan, NBC political analyst

TV

Dave has been a frequent analyst about Columbine, Parkland, school shootings, gays and soldiers on Today, NBC Nightly News, PBS Newshour, Nightline, Morning Edition, CBS This Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, CBSN, Anderson Cooper 360, Rachel Maddow, All In With Chris Hayes, Katie, Talk of the Nation, Hannity, and numerous documentaries including CNN, NatGeo, Showtime and The Nineties.

my Parkland appearances