David A. Taylor

David A. Taylor (born 1961) is an American author and filmmaker whose works include the book, Ginseng, the Divine Root (Algonquin) and Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America (Wiley), which the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ranked among the Best Books of 2009. He writes articles for the Washington Post, Smithsonian, Science, Microbe, National Geographic, and Washingtonian. He has written scripts for National Geographic, PBS, Discovery and Smithsonian Channels.

His first book, Ginseng, the Divine Root, was published by Algonquin Books in June 2006. The Boston Globe called it "fantastic" and "one of those rare works that remind us what an endlessly surprising place the world is by revealing the drama concentrated in the past and present of one plant." Library Journal dubbed it "a fascinating tour" from "a master storyteller," and Publishers Weekly called it "an intelligent, wide-ranging account." Taylor's book of short fiction, Success: Stories, received the Washington Writers' Publishing House Award for Fiction and was published in 2008.

His second nonfiction book, Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America, published by Wiley & Sons in February 2009, was named an Amazon Book of the Month and a finalist in the Library of Virginia Literary Awards. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the book "the place to start learning about that remarkable era" and ranked the book among the Best Books of 2009. According to the Southern Cultures reviewer, "The result of Taylor's curiosity is an accessible, straightforward glimpse into some of the most important American writers of the 1930s and 1940s. In the process of recounting their adventures, Taylor demonstrates how these writers shaped the way Americans tell their histories." NPR featured the book on All Things Considered, and anthology editors Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling called Soul of a People “an entertaining and informative look at the U.S. writers who participated in this Depression era government project. Revealing about both the writers and the condition of the United States at that time.”

Publishers Weekly called Taylor's 2012 collaboration with Mark Collins Jenkins, an illustrated National Geographic book about the War of 1812, "an engaging series of narratives filled with fascinating historical flotsam" and said the authors "seldom engage in cheerleading, offering instead a captivating story."

Taylor's 2018 book, Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, as Grady Harp wrote in the San Francisco Review of Books, "reads like a thriller … particularly timely as we step lightly though portents of possible similar corruption and conspiracy. Brilliant writing!” Historian Douglas Brinkley called Cork Wars "a marvelous history," adding, "Taylor gives a vivid slice of life from that time that speaks to ours. A landmark achievement." In the Washington Independent Review of Books Cathy Alter wrote, "As he demonstrated with his previous book, Ginseng, the Divine Root, Taylor has a knack for taking unsung heroes and elevating them to star status." Alter called Soul of a People "a humane and seminal accounting of our country, not unlike Studs Terkel's Working."

Documentaries and Television

In the 1990s, Taylor began writing for television and documentary films. After writing for television series including Great Castles of Europe and the F.B.I. Files, he ventured into long-form documentary, serving as a creative consultant with Spark Media for the 2002 PBS documentary, Partners of the Heart, about racism and a pioneering partnership in medicine.

Taylor was the lead writer and co-producer on the documentary film based on his book, Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story, which was broadcast on Smithsonian Channel in October 2009. Directed by Andrea Kalin and produced by Spark Media, the film garnered a Writer’s Guild of America nomination for best documentary (non-current affairs), and received a Cine Best of DC award.

Taylor writes articles for Smithsonian magazine and teaches in the Science Writing certificate program at Johns Hopkins University.

Short Fiction

Taylor's short story collection, Success: Stories, received the 2008 Washington Writers Publishing House Award for Fiction. StorySouth wrote that the book's "fourteen superbly-crafted tales . . . explore the most vital crises of existence, when human emotions—desire and isolation, suspicion and jealousy—boil over, leaving in their wake exquisite failure and a conflict that blooms in complexity every time the reader revisits it." Publishers Weekly wrote that Taylor's stories "uncover gentle irony in the commonly held notion of a successful life." In Washington City Paper, Mark Athitakis wrote that Taylor’s skills included "tight, convincing dialogue, and an eye for apt metaphors within the places his characters inhabit." Taylor's stories have appeared in literary journals including Gargoyle, Potomac Review, Jabberwock, Barrelhouse, and Rio Grande Review, and in the anthologies Stress City and Eclectica's Best Fiction.

Taylor was born in 1961 and grew up in Alexandria, VA. He received a bachelor's degree in English cum laude from Davidson College. He is married and lives in Washington, DC.

• Independent Publisher Book Award for History (World)
• Writers Guild of America East Screenplay Reading Series
• Career Grant from the National Association of Science Writers
• Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship
• CASE Media Fellowship
• National Endowment for the Humanities grants
• International Reporting Project Fellowship for reporting on malaria in West Africa
• Soul of a People and Success: Stories were both finalists in the Library of Virginia’s Literary Arts Awards

• Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, December 2018. (nonfiction)
• Towards the Assessment of Trees Outside Forests. By Hubert de Foresta et al. A Thematic Report prepared in the framework of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Edited by David Taylor. Rome: FAO, 2013. (scientific report)
• The War of 1812 and the Rise of the U.S. Navy. Mark Jenkins and David Taylor. Washington, DC: National Geographic Books, 2012. (nonfiction)
• Tall Ship Odysseys: Fifty Years of Operation Sail. Boston: Boston Publishing Co., 2010. (nonfiction)
• The Dragon and the Elephant: Understanding the Development of Innovation Capacity in China and India: Summary of a Conference. Merrill, Stephen, Taylor, David A. et al. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2010. 64 pages. (scientific report)
• Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America, by David Taylor. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons, 2009. (nonfiction)
• Success: Stories. Fiction. Washington, DC: Washington Writers Publishing House, 2008. (short stories)
• Ginseng, the Divine Root. NY and Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2006. (nonfiction)

• Worlds of Sound: The Ballad of Folkways for Smithsonian Channel's Inside the Music. 52 minutes. Smithsonian ChannelHD. 2009.
• Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story. 93 minutes. NEH-funded program for Smithsonian ChannelHD. 2009.
• Where Life Meets Art. Zora Neale Hurston in Maryland. 5 minutes. Spark Media. 2007.
• Partners of the Heart, for PBS American Experience (creative consultant). 55 minutes. Spark Media. 2002.
• Endangered Animals: Survivors on the Brink. National Geographic. 1997.