Michael Leahy (author)


Michael Leahy is an American author and award-winning writer for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine. He is best known for his latest non-fiction book The Last Innocents, which examines the tumultuous political and social change of the 1960s through the lens of the era's legendary Los Angeles Dodgers.
Leahy has also earned recognition for his 2004 book When Nothing Else Matters, which chronicles basketball superstar Michael Jordan's last comeback to the NBA. Leahy's stories have also been selected for the 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 editions of The Best American Sports Writing anthologies. His first book Hard Lessons follows the lives of six Beverly Hills High School students, class of 1986, and deals with the challenges and anxieties of teenage life in modern America.

Early life

Leahy was born in Newark, New Jersey. At age 10, he moved with his family to a suburb of Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Career

A feature writer known for his intimate portraits of subjects, Leahy explores topics varying from politics to social issues to sports. He has written for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and his work has appeared in Washington Post Magazine, TV Guide, Playboy Magazine and Sports Illustrated.
Leahy has published three non-fiction books: Hard Lessons, When Nothing Else Matters and The Last Innocents.
Along the way, Leahy has covered presidential politics, rural poverty, obesity in the Southern United States, malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, the housecleaner dubbed fisherman-savior of Elian Gonzalez, the United States Army’s recruiting efforts amid the specter of the Iraq war, corporate scandals, a nudist camp, his mother’s struggles with Alzheimer's, and the playing comeback of basketball legend Michael Jordan with the Washington Wizards.
The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turblent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Leahy's third non-fiction book, was published on May 10, 2016 by Harper Collins.

Awards and accolades

Leahy resides with his wife in a suburb of Washington D.C.