Michael Scott Moore
Journalist and novelist
Michael Scott Moore is an American journalist and novelist who was held hostage in Somalia for over two and a half years and wrote about it in The Desert and the Sea.
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Born 1969 in Los Angeles, United States
Influenced by James Baldwin
About Michael Scott Moore
Michael Scott Moore, born in 1969, is an American journalist and novelist. He earned a German Literature degree from the University of California, San Diego, in 1991. He lives in Berlin and holds German citizenship as well. Armed captors took him in Galkayo, Somalia, in January 2012, while he was researching a book about modern piracy. He was held for more than two and a half years and freed on 22 September 2014. The Desert and the Sea (2018) is his memoir of that captivity. His earlier books include Sweetness and Blood (2010), a nonfiction history of surfing around the world, and the comic novel Too Much of Nothing. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic and Der Spiegel. He also sits on the board of Hostage US, a non-profit group that helps American hostages and their families.