Corban

Addison

Bestselling Author of Fiction & Nonfiction

Travels from: Charlottesville, VA

“Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and told with the air of suspense that few writers can handle, Wastelands is a story I wish I had written.” — From the Forward by John Grisham

Corban Addison is the international bestselling author of four novels, A Walk Across the Sun, The Garden of Burning Sand, The Tears of Dark Water, and A Harvest of Thorns, and one work of narrative nonfiction, Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial. His books have been published in more than twenty-five countries and have won multiple awards. They address some of today’s most pressing issues of justice and human rights.

Corban holds a law degree from the University of Virginia and an engineering degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After completing a judicial clerkship, he spent six years trying cases in the courtroom before turning to writing full-time. He is a supporter of numerous causes, including environmental justice and the abolition of modern slavery. He lives with his wife and children in Virginia.

Corban's Featured Titles

Food, Race, and Money: The Story of Wastelands

Between 2013 and 2020, more than five hundred residents of rural eastern North Carolina—most of them Black people of modest means—fought to hold the world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, accountable in court for polluting their air, their water, and their ancestral land for more than a generation. This is the story that Corban Addison chronicles in his award-winning book, Wastelands.

The story of Wastelands is a triumph of human courage and persistence in the face of insurmountable odds, and also an untold civil rights story that resonates with America’s current reckoning on race. It is a story that exposes the shadow side of agribusiness, the dangers of corporate capture in state legislatures, the challenge of holding rich and powerful industries to account in the courts, and the true cost of one of America’s favorite breakfast foods—bacon.

In a visually rich presentation, complete with video footage and animations from five federal trials, Corban Addison tells an all-American story about the intersection of food, race, and money, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a landmark war in the courtroom that brought a once invincible industry to its knees.

A Harvest of Thorns: The True Cost of Fast Fashion

Every year, global consumers spend $3 trillion on fashion—from high-end couture to bargain-basement bling. But where do the things we love to buy and wear come from? Who stitched the fabric together, sewed on the buttons and zippers, and brought the garments to life? And at what cost to the natural environment?

The true cost of fast fashion is something the biggest brands try very hard to hide. Only a few, like Patagonia, are honest about the human rights abuses and environmental degradation woven into the very fabric of most of our clothing. Global supply chains are enormously complex. The laws governing overseas manufacturing are weak and badly enforced. And the constant drive to maximize profits encourages even the best businesspeople to look away. At day’s end, it’s simply cheaper to exploit garment workers in Bangladesh and Malaysia and destroy river systems in China than it is to protect communities and ecosystems half a world away.

The modern fashion industry is a harvest of thorns. Corban Addison tells the story of that industry through the eyes of the people he met around the world. He also proposes practical solutions to clean up fashion and slow it down, from corporate social responsibility to impact investing and conscientious consumerism.

A Walk Across the Sun: The Human Face of Modern Slavery

More people are enslaved today than at any other time in history. Yet their bondage is invisible to us, buried deep in global supply chains and hidden in plain sight on our streets and in our communities.

The victims of forced labor work in brothels in India and Cambodia and garment factories in Malaysia and Vietnam. They mine gold and rare earth minerals in the Congo, raise cattle in Brazil, harvest coffee and cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire, construct skyscrapers and soccer stadiums in Qatar, catch fish in Ghana and Thailand, produce pornography in Russia, and make toys in China. They also perform seasonal migrant labor in orange groves in Florida and strawberry fields in California, and offer sexual services by way of pimps and online platforms everywhere in the United States.

In telling the story behind his internationally bestselling debut novel, A Walk Across the Sun, Corban Addison puts a human face on modern slavery, and invites his audience to become 21st Century abolitionists, to engage the issue as voters and citizen advocates, and to minimize their own slavery footprint as consumers.

The Tears of Dark Water: Piracy, Violent Extremism, and the Challenge of Somalia

The crime of piracy has long been the scourge of the high seas. In the first decade of the 21st Century, however, it took on new dimension, as young Somalis armed with Soviet-era rifles and motivated by extreme poverty and daredevil courage launched skiffs into the Gulf of Aden, a gateway for one-tenth of the world’s trade, and deeper into the Arabian sea, to capture cargo ships and sailing vessels and hold them for ransom.

In 2013, Corban Addison followed in their footsteps, exploring the true story of the hijacking of the American sailing vessel Quest. After attending the federal death penalty trial of the hijackers in Virginia and befriending a man who was the FBI’s top international hostage negotiator, he went on a 49-day, 45,000-mile research odyssey to Arabia and the Horn of Africa. He sailed in the Seychelles, landed on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier at sea, discussed counter-piracy tactics with the captain of the U.S.S. Gettysburg while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, visited refugee areas outside Mogadishu, Somalia and Dadaab, Kenya under guard, and collected the stories of love and loss offered by Somalis who had been displaced by the 25-year civil war and driven to the edge of human experience, yet who still harbored a glimmer of hope that their country might regain its former status as “the Jewel of the Indian Ocean.”

In telling the unforgettable story behind his award-winning novel, The Tears of Dark Water, Corban Addison offers a unique and deeply personal perspective of the problem of piracy and the challenge of Somalia, a country most of the world considers a failed state. He also explores the human impact of violent crime, the dehumanizing consequences for its perpetrators, and the thorny moral tension between retribution and forgiveness.

The Mirror & The Prism: Telling Stories that Changes the World

There is a reason we use storytelling to shape the moral imagination of our children. Story is the universal language, the lingua franca shared by all human beings across time. A story is both a mirror and a prism, reflecting back to us different facets of ourselves, and offering us a novel lens through which to perceive the world.

Stories invite us to see ourselves in the faces of strangers, to walk a mile or two in the shoes of someone we might never have occasion to meet. Stories also encourage us to embrace compassion for the poor and marginalized, the oppressed and exploited, even if they are vastly different from us in culture, history, and creed. Indeed, a well-told story is the most effective engine of empathy creation humans have ever conceived.

It is this vision that has animated Corban Addison’s storytelling from the beginning. It has led him to the furthest reaches of the earth and into some of humanity’s darkest corners, from brothels in India to slums in Southern Africa to refugee camps in Somalia and Kenya and into the tenement houses of garment makers who jumped out of the upper-story windows of a Bangladeshi factory to escape a raging fire while making clothes for U.S. brands.

Corban brings all of these stories to life while exploring the nature of storytelling itself—its soul, its purposes, and its unique power to transform the human heart, and by that to change the world.

“Corban Addison’s presentation about Wastelands is fantastic. Corban is a master storyteller, weaving the threads of the story together in a compelling tale and leaving the listener wanting more. The presentation was a student favorite at Baylor Law. I highly recommend both the book and the presentation to anyone who is seeking a dynamic speaker and interesting story for their group.” — Stephen Rispoli, Baylor Law School, 2022

“Corban spoke about his latest book, Wastelands, at A Day of Authors in Southern California. He is a terrific storyteller about issues that matter. He did an excellent job presenting a difficult topic that made our attendees want to learn more.” — Diane Siegfried, A Day of Authors, 2023

“Corban is a fantastic speaker! He tells a great story, and he was very personable and outgoing in the small groups and Q&A sessions as well.” — Amy Schreiber, Eastern University, 2023

“Corban brings the same passion and enthusiasm to talking with an audience as he does to gripping the reader in the books he writes. Not all authors can tap into that level of ‘presence’ that engages listeners fully, connecting with them to care about the subjects, and motivating them to ask questions and seek further action.” — Mary Froelich, Books & Brews, 2023

“In November 2022, Corban presented the story of his book, Wastelands, to the Wake Forest and Forsyth County community. In a wonderfully narrated presentation, he brought to life the realities at the intersection between environmental law and historical/socio-economic injustice in a compelling way for the audience to understand.” — Logan Roach, Wake Forest Law School, 2022

“In June 2022, Corban Addison was a keynote speaker at the State Bar of Texas’ Annual Meeting, a convention with approximately 1,500 in attendance. Corban mesmerized an audience made up of leading lawyers, judges, and appellate justices from all over the state. He told the story of his book, Wastelands, in a compelling way. When his presentation ended, there was a strong positive response to his speech, which was clearly one of the convention’s highlights.” — Talmage Boston, State Bar of Texas, 2022

“Corban Addison is an outstanding writer who also has a wonderful presence as a public speaker. He is thoughtful and polished in prepared remarks and excellent in answering questions. As the Director of the Virginia Festival of the Book for over a decade, I have heard hundreds of authors speak. Mr. Addison receives my highest accolades as one of the best I have heard.” — Nancy Damon, Virginia Festival of the Book, 2016

“Corban Addison engages students at every level — their intellects, intuitions, emotions, and imaginations. Through fascinating stories, facts and figures, and probing questions he brings students to a deeper understanding of themselves, their world, and the challenges with which their generation is faced.” — Deena Hurwitz, UVA Law School, 2013

“I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel with Corban at a book launch in New York. He gave what was perhaps the most compelling speech on human trafficking and modern-day slavery I have ever heard—and I have heard, and given, many. Corban brings both extraordinary story-telling ability and encyclopedic knowledge of the field, but he does so conversationally, drawing in everyone in the room. Best of all, Corban describes the problem and then he describes the solution and the part that everyone can play in it.” — Holly Burkhalter, VP for Government Relations, IJM, 2012

Corban’s Events

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Wastelands won the Reed Environmental Writing Award in 2023
Amazon Editor’s Pick: Best Books of 2022 So Far
The Tears of Dark Water won the inaugural Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award in 2016
A Walk Across the Sun was short-listed for the Goodreads Choice Awards in 2012
A number of books have been international bestsellers

Media clips

The New York Times | When Thousands of Hogs Are Your Neighbors

LA Times | How a rural victory over pig poop struck a blow against polluters everywhere

ABC News | ‘Wastelands’ tells story of how small community took on large farm pollution

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

Addison

Food, Race, and Money: The Story of Wastelands

A Harvest of Thorns: The True Cost of Fast Fashion

A Walk Across the Sun: The Human Face of Modern Slavery

The Tears of Dark Water: Piracy, Violent Extremism, and the Challenge of Somalia

The Mirror & The Prism: Telling Stories that Changes the World

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Media clips

Media Kit

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