Charles Barber

Charles Barber is the author of five acclaimed narrative nonfiction books, all of which tell stories of activists who changed the world. They include In the Blood: How Two Outsiders Solved a Centuries-Old Medical Mystery and Took on the U.S. Army (2023), a PEN America finalist; Peace & Health (2022), about a group of activists who founded a free healthcare clinic for the poor; and Citizen Outlaw (2019), a portrait of William Outlaw, a former drug kingpin who now works as a violence interrupter. Barber is writer-in-residence at Wesleyan University and a lecturer in Psychiatry at Yale University’s School of Medicine. He has been widely published in popular and scholarly publications. Before becoming a writer, he worked for two decades in homeless shelters and halfway houses. He lives in Connecticut with his family.