Peter Hessler is a staff writer at The New Yorker , where he served as the Beijing correspondent from 2000 to 2007, and is also a contributing writer for National Geographic . He is the author of River Town , which won the Kiriyama Prize; Oracle Bones , which was a finalist for the National Book Award; and, most recently, Country Driving . He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting, and he was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2011. He lives in Cairo.