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.
Birth of a Movement
New York Times Bestseller
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
Editor's Pick: Best Nonfiction
"This book is about the birth of something extraordinary: the birth of a movement, but also the rebirth of hope.”
Finalist
Longlisted
My Latest
My best?
My Story
Dave Cullen has been covering the blight of mass murders in America for two decades, first with Columbine, then Parkland: Birth of a Movement, and finally a Vanity Fair profile of Gabby Giffords, the first since her shooting.
Both books were New York Times bestsellers. 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 eight 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
"More important now than ever."
— Esquire, 2018
"One of the most uplifting books you will read all year."
— Washington Post, 2019
Reviews
Parkland Reviews
Starred Review
Cullen has produced masterpieces that are simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful about a saner future.
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.
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.
10 authors to read in 2019
— AppleBooks
This winter's best nonfiction reads
7 Most Anticipated nonfiction of 2019
Top 10 Politics & Pop Culture, Spring 2019
10 Southern books we want to read in 2019
— Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New books to look forward to in 2019
Books We'll be talking about in 2019
most anticipated international books
— Canadian Broadcasting System
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.
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.
Stories
