Jonathan Mahler is the author of The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which grew out of an article he wrote in June 2004 for The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of the best-selling book Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, a 2004 New York Times Notable Book that was adapted as an eight-part dramatic miniseries for ESPN starring John Turturro. Mahler is a contributing writer for the Times Magazine, where he has written about everything from baseball to politics to religion. His work has appeared in a variety of other publications, including The New York Times Book Review, New York magazine, the New Republic and Slate. The Challenge is currently being made into a feature film by George Clooney and Aaron Sorkin.

A 1990 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University, Mahler lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Danielle Mattoon and their children, Gus and Nora.