♦ Jesse Pesta is a writer and photographer and a Page One editor at The Wall Street Journal.

Jesse has lived and worked as a journalist in New York, India, Hong Kong and small-town America, where his family published a more-than-century-old local newspaper.

♦ Jesse Pesta edits long-form investigative and narrative projects for The Wall Street Journal -- in WSJ lingo, the Page One "leders." He was a primary editor of the Journal's 2013 book on Pope Francis, which is published by HarperCollins. Occasionally he edits the Page One "A-Hed," too.

♦ He is lucky enough to work with extraordinary reporters world-wide on various subjects, including:

An Indian woman's six-year descent into all-but-untreatable tuberculosis, fresh doubts about the veracity of Truman Capote's masterwork "In Cold Blood," Facebook's outing of two gay students at a Texas school, Vietnam's bride kidnappers, America's housing crisis, India's experiment in schooling, the secret love story behind a rape and murder that has horrified the world, Iceland's weird economy, stretch limos that are too long, midwives who murder babies, a Chinese family's nightmare, FBI informants, reverse white flight and getting naked in Vermont.

He edits the Journal's continuing, years-long examination of the transformation of personal privacy. This project in 2012 was named a finalist for the Pulitzer prize in explanatory reporting.

He edited the Journal's powerful 2012 and 2013 portraits of India's rape-and-murder victim and her close friend--profiles that revealed their heartbreaking love story, and did so in their own words.

He edits the WSJ's Page One investigation into the return of all-but-incurable tuberculosis. This project has uncovered risk of drug-resistant TB in the U.S. and on Europe's doorstep, revealed structural flaws in the World Health Organization and forced profound policy change in India that will save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Other projects he has edited for Page One include: "Flawed Miracle" (examining obstacles to India's rise), the award-winning series "Federal Offenses" (exposing dysfunction in the U.S. federal criminal code) and the award-winning "Censorship Inc." (investigating the companies that help repressive nations censor their citizens.)

He edited much of the Journal's award-winning Page One coverage of Iran at the peak of the uprising that swept the nation in 2009.

♦ As a reporter he has written about:

The world's fastest ocean liner, an unusual parade in the American midwest, India's out-of-date doorknob technology, the slaughter of Nepal's royal family and Great Britain's unhappy mercenaries.

♦ In 2009 he traveled to Cambodia as a photographer for a project on modern-day slavery published in Marie Claire.

♦ In 2001 he covered the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks from Islamabad, Pakistan.

♦ Jesse's photography has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire magazine, The Daily Beast, dearly departed Newsweek and other publications, and exhibited at the Exit Art gallery, New York; Photographic Gallery, Front St., New York; Chrystie Street Gallery, Chrystie St., New York; ABC No Rio, Rivington St., New York; the Southern Indiana Center for the Arts; and the Edward Hopper House, Nyack, N.Y.

♦ See the most recent photography at Starve Hollow Road, a site named for the hollow (in local parlance) where Jesse grew up.

Visit this family art site to see more photos as well as short-short stories, pastel art, cartoons ~ and a serial mystery novel. The site is a collaboration with Maureen O'Hara Pesta, Abigail Pesta and John Pesta.

♦ March-April 2013: Edited "From The End Of the Earth to Rome ," a Wall Street Journal book, published by HarperCollins, on the selection of Pope Francis.

"Two days after the dinner, however, something clicked. And it happened in the span of four minutes ..."

~ Read an excerpt here.

♦ October 2012-Spring 2013: Serving as master's program adviser for investigative reporting at the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University's graduate journalism program for the 2012-13 academic year.

♦ October 27, 2012: Guest critic at the annual résumé critique for young journalists organized by the Asian American Journalists Association.

♦ April 16, 2012: "The End of Privacy," The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the erosion of privacy in the U.S., is named a finalist for the Pulitzer prize in explanatory reporting.

"The End of Privacy" honored as a finalist as well for the Public Service award by the Scripps Howard Foundation.

♦ January 2012: The Journal's "Federal Offenses" investigative report, exposing the surprising ways in which little-known laws can snare unwary Americans, takes home one of the National Press Foundation's top journalism awards for 2011.

♦ June 29, 2011: The WSJ's investigative report on privacy, "What They Know," honored with a UCLA Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished journalism.

♦ June 3-August 5, 2011: Selected photos on exhibit at the Exit Art gallery in New York as part of the well-known gallery's Contemporary Slavery exhibition.

As part of the exhibit, also served as a panelist in the SEA Poetry Series alongside Tonya Foster.

♦ March 26, 2011: Represented The Wall Street Journal in a presentation at Yale Law School to discuss personal privacy and the online advertising business.

♦ September 25, 2010: Offered memories from India of working with Danny Pearl, the Journal reporter who was murdered in Pakistan in 2002, at "Music for Humanity," a concert commemorating his life.

Here is a video of the remarks from the evening. The address begins about a minute in.

♦ July 1, 2010: "Famed Liner Steers Clear of Scrapyard" is published in the WSJ, breaking the news that the tiny group of ship lovers written about earlier by Jesse Pesta on Page One are about to pull off the impossible and buy their beloved SS United States superliner.

The latest report is accompanied by photographs of the rarely seen interior of the ship, and a video report.

♦ June 7, 2010: Page One article "In One Home, a Mighty City's Rise and Fall" by Michael M. Phillips wins the Deadline Club award for feature writing.

♦ May 14, 2010: Represented the WSJ in a discussion of ethical journalism alongside Peter Bhatia of the Oregonian and Scott Carney of Wired, in a program led by Prof. Tom Bivins of the University of Oregon.

♦ April/May, 2010: The Journal's Iran coverage, "Hearts, Minds and Blood: The Battle for Iran," wins the Society of Professional Journalists award for outstanding foreign correspondence, the Overseas Press Club award for outstanding reporting abroad, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Payne Award for Ethics.

"Farnaz Fassihi's courageous reporting gives us
an inside view of the unfolding drama."

~ Overseas Press Club

"Chilling personal tales from both sides of the issue."

~ RFK Award

♦ April 8, 2010: Represented the WSJ in a discussion of fairness in journalism at the Nieman Foundation.

♦ Jan/Feb 2010: "Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave" photos published in Estonian, Greek and Czech Republic editions of Marie Claire.

♦ November 2009: Photos published in Marie Claire magazine, "Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave."

♦ Oct. 3, 2009: Interview on WABC's " John Batchelor Show" about the SS United States:

♦ Sept. 29, 2009: "Fans of World's Fastest Ocean Liner Put Out a Distress Call" published on WSJ's Page One.

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