Hank Nuwer is best known for his four young adult and adult books on the topic of hazing in society—including High School Hazing. He also has written To the Young Writer, a book for young adults on the business of writing as seen through the eyes of such well-known authors as Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, author of Shiloh; Angelo Pizzo, the screenwriter of Hoosiers, and multicultural author Toyomi Gibson.

In 2008 he completed a coming-of-age historical Y/A novel tited The Buried Children, about two Basque brothers from Spain who moved to Nevada in 1897 as sheepherders and survived adventures with an Australian sheepdog named Lazarus. Other books for youngsters include a biography of Jesse Owens and books on football, baseball, sports scandals, steroids, and recruiting in sports. His writing hero growing up was author Jim Kjelgaard, author of Stormy, Big Red and Trailing Trouble. Other writing influences were the late author Robert Laxalt, Kurt Vonnegut, Robinson Jeffers and Upton Sinclair.

He holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Buffalo State College, his alma mater, and his manuscripts are part of the Hank Nuwer Collection in the BSC Library. He frequently speaks on hazing prevention in private schools and athletic teams, He also speaks on the art of nonfiction storytelling at writer conferences. He was writer-in-residence for a day in the Indianapolis Public Library's Franklin Road branch in 2005. His books are reviewed on "About Private Schools" by moderator Robert Kennedy.

He attended graduate school in New Mexico (master's) and took additional classes at the University of Nevada. As a magazine writer, he loves participatory journalism. He played baseball for Manager Felipe Alou in spring training one year for a Montreal Expos' minor league team. He also rode a bull in a rodeo (briefly!), herded sheep with Basque herders in Nevada (ba-aa-dly) , and learned to throw a discus (not very far!) with the late four-time Olympic gold medal winner Al Oerter.

He is at work on a young adult novel revolving around an athletic hazing incident, as well as a biography of Kurt Vonnegut and a nonfiction account of a hazing victim. His journalism has appeared in Harper's, Outside, Saturday Evening Post, The Nation, Toronto Globe & Mail, Montreal Standard, Boston Magazine and many other publications.

He resides in Indiana and New York but spends his free hours enjoying outdoor pursuits in Alaska, Nevada and Idaho. His hobbies are reading (of course!), flyfishing, horseback riding, hiking, weightlifting, collecting postage stamps with authors on them, and tropical fish. He also has given talks on hazing at about 100 colleges and high school private schools, including Dartmouth, the University of Michigan, Penn State, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, the University of Illinois, University of Vermont, the University of Oregon and University of Alaska, Anchorage.

The Hazing Reader
Indiana University Press, 2004
ISBN 978-0-253-34370-3

Recent and classic research on the culture of hazing.

Despite numerous highly publicized incidents and widespread calls for reform, hazing continues to plague many of the nation's institutions. In this volume, noted hazing researcher Hank Nuwer presents 15 classic or never-before-published essays that can help all of us, parent and professional alike, better understand the culture of hazing. The collection, which includes contributions from such experts as Michael Gordon, Walter Kimbrough, Stephen Sweet, and Lionel Tiger, looks at hazing behavior in fraternal organizations (including sororities and traditionally black fraternities), high school, the military, and sports. There are also chapters on hazing and the law, hazing injuries, and hazing and gender. Lastly, the book lays out steps for transforming a culture of hazing and offers suggestions for further reading.

To the Young Writer: 
Nine Writers Talk About Their Craft
Scholastic, 2002
ISBN 978-0-531-11591-6

A concise, practical, and accessible guide for young writers contemplating making a living with their creative writing skills. The people interviewed include screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, journalist Pat O’Driscoll, children’s poet Rebecca Dotlich, fiction writer Toyomi Igus, photojournalist Max Aguilera-Hellweg, advertising copy writer David Young, and music critic Alanna Nash, among others. The book was cited after publication by the New York Public Library as one of its best books for young adults.     

Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge-Drinking
Indiana University Press, 2002
ISBN 978-0-253-21498-0

Well known author Hank Nuwer (Broken Pledges), in a hard-hitting investigation of hazing and binge drinking in Greek fraternities and sororities, recounts the breakdown of common sense, civility, and leadership in American college fraternal life. Nuwer’s books on hazing try to end this abuse of human rights the way Sinclair Lewis’s The Jungle attempted to end abuses in the meatpacking industry. What forces young men and women to accept inhuman, degrading rituals in order to belong to a social club, sorority, or fraternity? Are they the same forces that have made college binge drinking a national epidemic? Why do college administrators and Greek fraternities and sororities continue to allow practices that frequently lead to death or permanent physical and psychological damage? Why are black fraternities more prone to violent rites of passage than their white counterparts?

After an in-depth look at the problem, Nuwer offers a detailed final chapter, with a list of strategies for society in general, parents, college administrators, fraternities, and the police for combatting these demeaning and dangerous practices.

High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs
Scholastic, 2000
ISBN 978-0-531-16465-5

High School Hazing is a book for young adults that tackles not only the challenge for high school boys and girls in how to fight off would-be hazers, but it also offers a cautionary tale of Nick Haben who died in his sleep after an alcohol-heavy rookie initiation at Western Illinois University.

Legend of Jesse Owens
Scholastic, 1998
ISBN 978-0-531-11356-1

Jesse Owens gained enduring fame by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin at a time America needed a hero to inspire the nation while Adolph Hitler was building his military empire. Owens found it very difficult to adjust to life after athletics and was taken advantage of by unscrupulous promoters. All too human, he made many bad decisions, but his resolve to become a better man in the end made him a hero worth emulating by young adults of all nations. The story of his bonding with an older coach in high school is particularly inspiring, as is Jesse’s courageous fight for life as a sickly child growing up in Alabama .

Broken Pledges
Longstreet Press, 1990
At your library, ISBN 978-0-929264-72-1

Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing takes readers deep into the heart of fraternities, sororities, the military and secret societies to explore the ritual of hazing in this pioneering book often cited as the book that inspired well-known researchers such as Elizabeth Allan to become a hazing activist and to start Stophazing.org. The book uses the attempt of Eileen Stevens to help reform social organizations, not end them, after the death of her son Chuck at Alfred University . The book sheds light on why men and women haze and allow themselves to be hazed.

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