Hank Nuwer is an author best known for his literary journalism, essays and his hazing research and hazing deaths unofficial clearinghouse. His research and/or books on hazing have been included in articles for the New York Times, Die Zweit, Washington Post, National Public Radio, Times of India, The Conversation, and The Guardian.
The Hazing Prevention Network and Northeast Greek Association award annual “Hank Nuwer Awards” to honor individuals and groups doing an outstanding job to educate schools and the public about hazing.
Hank Nuwer has an M.A. from New Mexico Highlands University and a B.S. in English from Buffalo State University. His papers are collected at the Buffalo State University Butler Library.
He has an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Buffalo State University and is a 1999 Ball State Distinguished Alumnus. He spoke to graduate students at BSU as a Commencement speaker in 2006 when he received his honorary doctorate.
In September 2024, because of his 49 years working for hazing prevention and hazing education, he received one of the four recognitions by the Alaska Children’s Trust Champions for Kids given individuals who demonstrate dedication and commitment in working to ensure that children and youth are living in safe, supportive, and nurturing communities.
He writes books and weekly columns for the Cordova Times in Alaska. His main residence is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with additional acres in remote Alaska.
He married Gosia Nuwer (Malgorzata Wroblewska-Nuwer) in 2017 and has two adult sons from a previous marriage and a stepdaughter, Dr. Natalia Wroblewska, with Gosia.
The Alaska Press Club in 2024 and 2025 awarded him its first prize Best Columnist and, in 2024, second place Best Humorist award. The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists named him its Ohio #1 Columnist of 2021. He has also won Society of Professional Journalists. awards for column writing and business writing from the Indiana chapter,
Hank Nuwer’s latest book “Hazing: Destroying Young Lives,” a collaboration with experts on Greek life and athletics, student affairs and attorneys, is proactive and is all about preventing hazing, recognizing hazing and taking forcible action to eradicate the culture from fraternities, sororities, bands, sports teams and student clubs. It is a companion to his earlier “Hazing Reader” and “Wrongs of Passage.”
Hank Nuwer is a scholar whose expertise is hazing education (Hazing, Wrongs of Passage, Hazing Reader). He is also a historical novelist (Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey), playwright (A Broken Pledge; Death of a Rookie, Beyond Survival) and journalist/social critic known for his many interviews with authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and Maurice Sendak. His magazine articles have included many adventures such as playing pro baseball with the Montreal Expos in spring training, herding sheep with Basques in rugged Nevada, and flying Idaho’s unfriendly skies with a back-country pilot.
He first wrote about hazing for Human Behavior Magazine in 1975. He now is working on a scholarly biography of Kurt Vonnegut, and, following that completion, a book on hazing in American culture. As a journalist, he also played first base in professional baseball games for the Montreal Expos’ Denver Bears, the old Indianapolis Clowns and the vintage baseball New York Mutuals.
His hobbies include stamp collecting, reading international authors, and acting in Alaska theater. Most recently he played Henry Fatt in the 2025 University of Alaska musical Strike!, Ed Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Santa/Mulch/Wendell in Ken Ludwig’s Twas the Night Before Christmas, Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, the Old Man in King Lear, Prince Escalus in Romeo and Juliet, the Professor in the University of Alaska’s Something in the Living Room, and the Moving Man in Raisin in the Sun. He also performs one-man plays for hazing education titled “Death of a Rookie” and “A Broken Pledge.” He was trained at the Shakespeare Institute where he won a fellowship for his satire “Tricky the First” and played Hal in Henry IV, Part Two, and Flute/Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. UB faculty members included actor Morris Carnovsky, scholar Alan Dorner and Michael Kahn.
Hank Nuwer taught graduate students in journalism at Ball State University and undergraduate students at Franklin College, Ball State, Anderson University, Clemson University, the University of Richmond and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Hank Nuwer was elected to the Ball State Journalism Hall of Fame.
He has given talks on hazing education at well over 120 schools, including the University of Oregon, University of Texas, University of Illinois, Indiana University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and Dartmouth College. He has lectured on either hazing or his own writing at colleges in Poland, Spain and Canada.
His memberships include Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta honor society, Sons of the American Legion, Order of Omega Leadership Society, Western Writers of America, Western American Literature, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, and the Alaska Press Club.
Nuwer is also a long-established editor. Most recently he served as managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, but he also was co-editor of the University of Nevada Brushfire, editor-in-chief of Arts Indiana Magazine, and a senior editor/writer for Rodale Press. He edited the work of/interviews with Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, William Stafford, Thom Gunn, Josephine Miles and Robert Laxalt while editor of Brushfire Magazine, 1973-1975. At Arts Indiana he edited the essays of Susan Neville, and Scott Russell Sanders, as well as writing essays himself.
His articles and nonfiction essays have run in Limberlost Review, Brushfire, South Dakota Review, Ball State University Forum, Phi Kappa Phi (honor society) Forum, Men’s Fitness, Arts Indiana Magazine. His book reviews continue to appear in Western American Literature and Forum magazine.
Hank Nuwer was an undergraduate fraternity member at Buffalo State and wrote for the Record Newspaper and played baseball and managed soccer. See BSU Hall of Fame.
In his early career, Nuwer edited the work of/interviews with Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, William Stafford, Thom Gunn, Josephine Miles and Robert Laxalt while co-editor of UNR’s Brushfire Magazine, 1973-1975.
Author photo credit below: University of Alaska Fairbanks Theater and Film Department.
He founded and continues to update the Buffalo State University Hazing Collection with archivist Daniel DiLandro.
Hank Nuwer‘s most recent hazing publication is his 2025 introduction to “Sport Hazing in the New Millenia.” The book’s editors are Professor Jessica Chin of San Jose State University & Professor Jay Johnson of the University of Manitoba {Emerald Press).
In 2023, he was the co-author of “Hazing in Fraternities and Sororities” with Elizabeth Allan in Gender-Based Crime: Learning Through Experts and Cases (edited by Kathleen A. Bogle).
His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press.
See recent articles on Hank Nuwer in Athletic Business and his appearance in the movie Hazing by Byron Hurt.
Hank Nuwer began keeping a database about hazing deaths in 1975 and maintains the Hazing Deaths database. The first shorter database appeared in his article for Human Behavior magazine in 1978. His investigation of hazing deaths appeared in 1990; the title was Broken Pledges: the Deadly Rite of Hazing.
He holds a master’s degree from New Mexico Highlands University with election to Phi Kappa Phi national honor society. He also has taken creative writing classes in literary nonfiction and fiction at Hamline University. His undergraduate degree is from Buffalo State University. He is a 1999 Outstanding Buffalo State University alumnus (1999) and received a 2006 honorary doctorate from Buffalo State.
He has written additional books on the topic of hazing in society including Hazing: Destroying Young Lives, Wrongs of Passage, High School Hazing, and The Hazing Reader.His book, Rendezvousing with Contemporary Authors, contains interviews with David Mamet, William Least Heat Moon, and many other writers. Many of the interviews were reprinted by other editors in book collections dedicated to interviews with authors.
He has contributed articles to The Quill magazine, Limberlost Review and The Conversation. Other bylines of his over the years appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Santa Fe New Mexican, Orlando Sentinel, Buffalo Courier-Express and other newspapers. He has written books for teens including Sons of the Dawn, High School Hazing, The Legend of Jesse Owens, Steroids and To the Young Writer.
Link to the Buffalo State Hank Nuwer Hazing Collection.
Nuwer’s journalism to eradicate hazing was honored by the NGLA and HazingPrevention.org