Michael Blanding

Michael Blanding is a Boston-based investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Salon, Consumers Digest, The Boston Globe Magazine, and Boston Magazine. His first book, The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink, was published by Avery/Penguin in 2010. His latest, The Map Thief, will be published by Gotham Books in June 2014.

Blanding is currently a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and a staff writer at Harvard Business School. He has also co-written several travel guides to New England destinations for Moon Handbooks, and taught journalism at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Grub Street Writers.

He has won multiple awards for his writing, including a 2012 Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for best feature article (100,000-500,000 circulation); a gold medal in the 2011 EXCEL Awards from Association Media & Publishing; first place for best general circulation magazine article in the 2005 National Association of Real Estate Editors awards; and a bronze medal for reader service in the 2004 City and Regional Magazine Awards. In addition, he has thrice been named a finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, in 2006, 2004, and 2003.