David Cullen

Dave Cullen is an American Non-fiction writer, freelance Journalist, and Filmmaker.

Cullen is best known for the books Columbine and Parkland: Birth of a Movement, and twenty-six years covering LGBT troops in the military.

Both books were New York Times bestsellers, peaking at #3 and 14, respectively. Both received overwhelmingly positive reviews, were named to prominent best books of the year lists, and Columbine earned several major awards. (See awards section.)

His upcoming book, Don't Fall in Love: The Secret Lives of Two Gay Soldiers Hiding in Plain Sight, began as a 2-part, 11,000-word magazine story on those soldiers, which won the 2000 GLAAD Media Award for best online story of the year. Cullen has been following and interviewing them ever since. The 25-year project is slated for a May 4, 2027 release from HarperCollins.

By the time of the Parkland shooting, TV producers began calling Cullen while mass murders were still in progress. "On Feb. 14, 2018, at 3:13 p.m.—54 minutes after the shooting started at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. — Dave Cullen got a text from a producer at "Anderson Cooper 360," asking him to appear on the show that night," the New York Times reported. "At that point, he'd been covering mass killings for so long he had begun suffering from a secondary form of traumatic stress, sometimes 'sobbing all day, mostly in bed, then slumped in a chair.' " The story reported that by the end of the year covering the March for Our Live activists, "He began to heal. 'I had no idea how much sadness was still in me until I saw the 'after' picture from 10 months with them — the happy Dave from pre-Columbine,' he says."

Cullen described some of his writing process to the New York Times. He said he likes to write outside, so he chose apartments within walking distance to Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. He also opted for a balcony there. "If I need some fresh air and a different headspace, I can walk out to the balcony and pick up a book and read," he said. "I can get some ideas percolating, write them on paper and rush to my computer right inside."

Cullen has begun working on adapting his IP for television. His website states that he retains the rights to all his IP, has completed the WGA Staff Writer Boot Camp, and intends to executive produce with another partner when the time is right. He also executive-produced a short documentary film for Conde Nast Entertainment on Parkland, and served as a consultant on an episode of John Ridley's ABC series American Crime. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Author's Guild.

Print media work

Cullen has worked primarily as a freelancer, and appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, London Times, The New York Times Book Review, Politico Magazine, The Guardian, the Washington Post, The New Republic, Lapham's Quarterly, Newsweek, BuzzFeed, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, The Millions, New York Daily News, and WNYC's On The Media.

Cullen's print work has focused heavily on two major subjects:

Mass murder and gun safety

LGBT troops in the military, and the military more broadly

He has also done significant work on books and pop culture, such as "The Barbie Way of Knowledge," "Forget Charlie Brown," and "Let's see if they'll play this."

He has covered many facets of LGBT life, including the murder trials of Matthew Shepard, Michael Sam coming out prior to the NFL draft, and Mary Cheney's national coming out. Mary Cheney had been publicly out for years, but it had gone unnoticed in the major media and until Cullen broke the story nationally during the 2000 Republican National Convention, when George Bush Jr. nominated her father Dick Cheney as his running mate. (Cheney then served at years as vice president.)

Mass Murder and Gun Safety:

Cullen's work on mass murder began with the Columbine massacre, where he was one of the first journalists on scene, and spent the next ten years researching and writing Columbine. He continued as a media analyst and essayist on succeeding mass murders, writing about several, including the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Mass Murder at the Gay Bar: When a Refuge Becomes the Target.

He contributed as an analyst for the Academy for Critical Incident Analysis (ACIA) at John Jay College, where he has participated in three-day intensives on-site with survivors of major tragedies, as well as noted criminologists, mental health experts and other involved. The have included Virginia Tech, the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, and the 2011 Norway attacks that left 77 dead. Cullen now serves on the board of the ACIA.

He gradually broadened his coverage to the gun safety movement for Vanity Fair, the New York Times, The Atlantic, and others. He spent a year covering the March For Our Lives movement, and published Parkland: Birth of a Movement. Cullen also spent a year researching and writing the first major profile of former US Representative Gabby Giffords, (D-AZ) "How Gabby Giffords Survived a Shot to the Head, and Outsmarted the NRA", and contributed the New York Times' guest essay for the tenth anniversary of Sandy Hook, "Republicans Are Breaking With the N.R.A., and It's Because of Us."

LGBTs in the military, and the military more broadly:

Cullen has been covering LGBT military troops continuously since 1999. This has included the long battle over Don't Ask, Don't Tell, "'Betrayal': Transgender Troops React to Trump's Ban, and "So What's it Like To Be a Gay Cadet at West Point These Days." His broader military coverage has included dispatches from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for The New Republic, "Guantanamo Bay: The 9/11 Trial Has Gone Completely Off the Rails," and "Guantanamo Bay: The Tragicomedy of the 9/11 Trial."

Books

Columbine, New York: Twelve, 2009. ISBN 9780446546935, OCLC 873747064 Edited by Jonathan Karp.

Parkland: Birth of a Movement, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2019. ISBN 9780062882943, OCLC 1083546196 Edited by Gail Winston.