Jeffery Marx

Jeffrey Marx did not take long to establish himself in the writing world. In 1986, at the age of 23, he became the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Then came other journalism awards – including the National Headliner and the Green Eyeshade – and Marx’s first magazine project landed his work on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Since then, Marx has written five books – including the New York Times bestseller Season of Life (2004, Simon & Schuster) – and contributed to countless newspapers and magazines throughout the world.

More than anything else, though, he enjoys taking the most powerful messages of his work and sharing them with live audiences. In the last few years alone, Marx has been the featured speaker for more than 100 events hosted by schools, corporations, community groups, and faith-based organizations.

“In the beginning, I was a writer because that’s what I enjoyed and that’s how I earned a living,” Marx says. “Now I write because I want to speak into people’s lives and try to make a difference in this world.”

His most requested presentation – “This Thing We Call Success” – focuses on the major themes in Season of Life: building healthy relationships, building community, building leaders. Marx also delivers popular keynotes based on material in two of his other books: his newest release, The Long Snapper (2009, HarperCollins); and one of his most personal works, It Gets Dark Sometimes (2000, JAM Publishing), which chronicles his sister’s remarkable experiences with organ donation and transplantation.

Marx is a native of Rye Brook, New York, and a graduate of Northwestern University. His Pulitzer, awarded for a series of articles on cheating in college basketball, came while working for the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader. His first two books – Inside Track (1990, Simon & Schuster) and One More Victory Lap (1996, Athletics International) – were written with Olympic champion Carl Lewis. Now a freelance journalist based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Marx has written for numerous publications including Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Time, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Baltimore Sun.

In addition to his writing and speaking, Marx is co-founder and director of the non-profit Wendy Marx Foundation for Organ Donor Awareness (established in 1990). The foundation is named for his sister, a liver transplant recipient who parlayed her own health challenges into a powerful message of hope for others. Wendy died, at the age of 36, in 2003. But Jeffrey Marx and the Wendy Marx Foundation will always continue her important work.