Kai Bird is an American author and columnist best known for his works on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and on United States relations with the Middle East. His biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer won a Pulitzer Prize, and Bird has also written biographies of political figures, including American Scoundrel. Crossing Mandelbaum Gate blends memoir and political history of the Middle East.