John Branch

I mostly write feature stories on a wide swath of topics, including sports, climate and politics. My aim is to surprise readers with stories that they did not know they wanted to read. I am based in California but have reported from nearly every state and from several continents.

What I Cover

I mostly enjoy finding nuanced stories in quiet corners away from bright lights and big crowds. As a longtime sports reporter, I have covered too many Olympics, Super Bowls and other big events to recall, but I lean toward outdoor adventures, untold tragedies and universal themes. One story might be about a disaster on Everest, the next from a rodeo or a Rubik’s Cube competition, the next about the feared disappearance of fog in San Francisco or the crash site of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter. I believe in on-the-ground reporting and the power of visual storytelling.

My Background

I came to The Times in 2005. Ten years before that, I was a veteran Costco manager curious about changing careers. I received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado and became a business reporter, then a sports reporter, at the Colorado Springs Gazette. I was a columnist at the Fresno Bee. Earlier jobs that prepared me for this work include dishwasher, hotel bellman and a steam engine train engineer.

I won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for “Snow Fall,” a story about a deadly avalanche in Washington State. I have written three books: “Boy on Ice,” about the death of a young hockey star, “The Last Cowboys” about a rodeo family in Utah fighting to save their land, and “Sidecountry,” a collection of my stories in the paper.

I was born in California and raised in Colorado.

Journalistic Ethics

As a Times journalist, I am committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. Sources can expect to be treated accurately, fairly and with open-mindedness. They cannot expect favors. In graduate school, I was a teacher’s assistant in a journalism ethics class, and I consider it the most important class I took. There is no greater honor than in telling someone else’s story.

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