Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, renowned for his bestselling non-fiction books such as Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. Born on April 12, 1954, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Krakauer grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, and graduated from Hampshire College in 1976.

Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a carpenter and commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska. Krakauer's writing has been featured in major publications including National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

In 1999, he was honored with an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, praised for combining the tenacity and courage of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and insight of a born writer.

Krakauer was part of a tragic expedition to Mount Everest in 1996, which he recounted in his book Into Thin Air, a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Following the disaster, he joined the American Himalayan Foundation to support the Sherpas who aided him and other survivors, and he now serves as the board chair of this organization.