Sam Kestenbaum is a journalist covering religion in America.
Longreads calls Sam’s reporting “fascinating… gonzo and empathetic at the same time.” The Revealer, in an interview, said: “He has a particular talent for telling stories about complicated people with a kind of lucid nuance.”
Organizers at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival, where Sam has appeared, called his writing “rich and vibrant, and the characters leap off the page cinematically.”
The Society of Features Journalism says: “Deeply reported and well-written profiles of fascinating religious figures… they reveal as much about American spirituality as the individuals” and “eye-opening… the writing is razor-sharp, at times bitingly humorous but never condescending.”
Faculty at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where Sam was the J. Arthur Martin Lecturer, say he “does a terrific job representing religion accurately and fairly to the broader public.”
The American Academy of Religion said: “Kestenbaum’s writing is remarkably fluent and engaging; each article… makes a little-known dimension of modern religion vividly accessible.” Judges from the Religion News Association called Sam’s writing “smart, colorful and informed.”
Sam is from Maine. He lives in Los Angeles.