Author Guide · Undercover Journalism
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In July 2009 Shane Bauer was hiking near a waterfall in Iraqi Kurdistan when Iranian border guards arrested him and two friends; he spent more than two years in Tehran's Evin prison. Three years after his release he answered a job advertisement for a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana, and was hired as a guard for nine dollars an hour, with a hidden camera on him. This guide covers both of his books, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 books · Undercover journalism · 2014–2018 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Shane Bauer has published two books: A Sliver of Light (2014), written with Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal about their imprisonment in Iran, and American Prison (2018), about the four months he spent working undercover as a guard in a private prison in Louisiana. The second grew out of a magazine article; the book goes much further, into two centuries of profit-making from prisoners.
Where to Start with Shane Bauer
If you want the famous one
→ American Prison (2018).
If you want the story behind it
→ A Sliver of Light (2014).
All 2 Shane Bauer Books, in Order
A Sliver of Light
Written with Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal. In 2009 the three friends were hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan when they crossed, unknowingly, into Iran and were arrested by a border patrol. Shourd was released after a year; Bauer and Fattal were held in Evin prison until September 2011. The book tells it in their three voices, from solitary confinement to the hunger strike and the trial.
American Prison
In 2014 Bauer was hired for nine dollars an hour as a guard at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, run by the Corrections Corporation of America, and worked there for four months with a hidden camera and recorder. Alternate chapters trace the history of for-profit punishment in the American South, from convict leasing after the Civil War onwards. The New York Times Book Review named it one of the ten best books of 2018.
How Many Books Did Shane Bauer Write?
Two books, one of them written with Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal.
- Memoir — A Sliver of Light (2014), with Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal. Read the entries →
- Undercover reporting — American Prison (2018). Read the entries →
In What Order to Read Shane Bauer
You can read them in either order, but they read best together: the first is about being a prisoner, the second about being a guard, and Bauer has said that his own imprisonment is what drew him back to prisons as a reporter.
A reading path
1. American Prison (2018)
2. A Sliver of Light (2014)
Quick facts about Shane Bauer
- Works for
- Mother Jones, as a senior reporter
- Imprisoned
- Evin prison, Tehran, from July 2009 to September 2011
- Undercover
- Four months as a guard at Winn Correctional Center, Louisiana, 2014–2015
- Magazine awards
- National Magazine Award for Reporting; Hillman Prize; John Jay Award for criminal justice reporting
- Book awards
- J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, Helen Bernstein Book Award and RFK Book Award, all for American Prison
- Recognition
- American Prison was one of the New York Times' ten best books of 2018
- Co-authors
- Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, on A Sliver of Light
- Books
- 2, A Sliver of Light (2014) and American Prison (2018)
How Shane Bauer Writes: Inside, with a Camera
Bauer's method in American Prison was to take the job himself. He applied under his own name, was hired with almost no checks, and carried a hidden camera and recorder through his shifts, so that much of the book is built from what he recorded on the tiers.
He also records what the job did to him. Over the four months he describes himself becoming harsher and more suspicious, and the book does not leave that out.
Every other chapter steps back into history, so that the scenes from 2014 and 2015 sit beside the long record of convict leasing and prison labour in the South that he researched for the book.
Frequently asked questions about Shane Bauer's books
How many books has Shane Bauer written?
Shane Bauer has published two books: A Sliver of Light (2014), written with Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, and American Prison (2018).
Was Shane Bauer really a prison guard?
Yes. In 2014 he was hired as a guard at Winn Correctional Center, a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana, and worked there for four months while reporting undercover for Mother Jones. He wrote about it first in a magazine article and then in American Prison (2018).
Why was Shane Bauer imprisoned in Iran?
In July 2009 Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal were hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan when they crossed into Iran without realising it and were arrested. Shourd was released in 2010; Bauer and Fattal were held in Evin prison until September 2011. They tell the story in A Sliver of Light (2014).
What awards did American Prison win?
American Prison won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism and the RFK Book and Journalism Award, and the New York Times Book Review named it one of the ten best books of 2018.
Footnotes
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Striving to treat everyone as human takes too much energy.”
— Shane Bauer, American Prison (2018)
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