In June, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, ’94, received the $60,000 Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction for his debut book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (Knopf). The former Stanford Daily editor recounts life inside Baghdad’s central zone where, as Washington Post bureau chief, he was posted during the early stages of the Iraq War. Chandrasekaran describes a veritable “Little America” where U.S. troops, contractors and attachés enjoy all the comforts of home: SUVs, beer, porn and pork. Lots of pork. The lead judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize said the book “is up there with the greatest reportage of the last 50 years.”
