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.”
Organizers at Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, where Sam was a guest speaker, say, “Sam Kestenbaum understands that spirituality and politics have always gone together, never in linear trajectories or neat categories. And he skillfully traces their ever-shifting configurations. In the best tradition of American religious history, Sam shows that the New Age, the metaphysicals, the spiritual people… are not the fringe, but are integral to the fabric of American religious and spiritual history. Sam understands American religion.”
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.
