Nicholas Schmidle is a writer covering issues related to transnational crime, militancy, and the intersection of culture, religion and politics abroad. He is the author of To Live or To Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years Inside Pakistan and a fellow at the New America Foundation. Nicholas contributes frequently to The New York Times Magazine, as well as The Atlantic, T: Travel, Slate, The New Republic and many others. He has written on a range of topics, including Sufi festivals and Taliban lashings in Pakistan, rising sea levels in the Maldives, and women’s boarding schools in Saudi Arabia, and al-Qaeda’s franchise in Mauritania.

In early 2006, Nicholas moved to Pakistan, backed by a writing fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs. He lived and reported in Pakistan for two years, before being deported from Pakistan in January 2008. He has also worked in Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central Asia, West Africa, Russia and the Balkans. Nicholas received the 2008 Kurt Schork Award for freelance journalism, based on his work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was named an International Reporting Project fellow in 2010. He speaks Persian and Urdu, and is a graduate of James Madison University and American University. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife.