John Hendrickson, author of Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter

Photo by Matthew Bernucca

John Hendrickson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Life on Delay: Making Peace With a Stutter, a reported memoir about his lifelong struggle to speak.

Life on Delay was named one of the best books of 2023 by The New Yorker, one of the best audiobooks of the year by Audible, and was a USA Today book club selection. New York Times nonfiction critic Jennifer Szalai described it as “seamlessly recounted, threading together science and emotion, ideas and experience.” The Washington Post called the book “mold-breaking,” noting that it “challenges long-standing attitudes toward disability“ and that “Hendrickson answers with courage and compassion one of the most meaningful questions in life.”

At The Atlantic, John writes at the intersection of politics and culture. His 2019 print feature "What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say" was read by more than 2 million people, named one of the best stories of the year by Longform, and inspired Life on Delay.

John has spoken about politics, journalism, disability, and other topics on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, BBC, at SXSW, and at colleges across the country. In 2022, his experience with stuttering was the subject of an Emmy-award winning New York Times documentary.

Before joining The Atlantic, he wrote and edited for Rolling StoneEsquire, and The Denver Post.

He lives in New York City with his wife.