John Washington

John Washington is an American journalist, author, translator, and activist whose work focuses on immigration, borders, migration, and social justice. He has reported extensively from the U.S.-Mexico border and throughout Latin America, writing for publications including The Nation, The Intercept, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times. Alongside his journalism, he has spent many years volunteering with humanitarian organizations that assist migrants in the Sonoran Desert, experiences that have deeply informed both his reporting and his books.

Washington is the author of The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexico Border and Beyond, a work of narrative nonfiction examining the global forces driving migration and the human consequences of modern border policies. In addition to his own writing, he is an acclaimed literary translator, bringing important Spanish-language works on migration, violence, and human rights into English. His translations include books by Óscar Martínez, Sandra Rodríguez Nieto, and Martín Arceo Osorio, helping introduce Latin American investigative journalism and literature to a broader audience.

Combining investigative reporting with literary storytelling, Washington has become an important voice on migration and displacement. His work emphasizes the lived experiences of asylum seekers and migrants while examining the political, economic, and historical forces that shape modern borders.