Anne Nivat (b. 1969 France) is an award-winning journalist and author. Nivat has written articles and editorials for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune, Libération, Ouest-France, and has appeared on NPR's Fresh Air and The Connection, and PBS's NewsHour, as well as other radio and TV programs. In her books Nivat's draws upon her affinity to the people affected, particularly women, and depicts the everyday consequences of geopolitical cataclysm. She herself emphasizes that her work is less about analysis than about immersing herself in, and living among, people.

Nivat published her first book Quand les médias russes ont pris la parole: De la glasnost à la liberté d'expression, 1985-1995 (Communication et civilisation) in 1997. The work was an analysis of the Russian media landscape during the transformation of the Soviet State, which was subject to many radical changes. In 1998, she became a correspondent for the French daily newspaper Libération in Moscow, and has also reported for other international newspapers and media from Russia since then, including Le Soir, Ouest France, Le Nouvel Observateur and the Washington Post.

In September 1999, Nivat traveled to Chechnya. Although the Russian government refused to accredit her, she reported from there undercover – disguised as a Chechnyan peasant – with the help of a satellite phone. Her book Chienne de guerre. Une femme reporter en Tchétchénie (Fayard 2000) describes her experiences of daily life during the war in Chechnya through her encounters with rebels, soldiers and civilians. The book was translated into several languages and won the Prix Albert-Londres (July 2000). Nivat also received the Prix Eléonore Pimentel Fonseca (Naples 2000) for her reporting from Chechnya.

Working together with Louisette Ighilahriz on L'Algérienne (Fayard 2001), she described the life and memories of the daughter of a freedom fighter, who was born in 1936. The violent history of Franco-Algerian relations in the 20th century is recapitulated through the biography, and the work also focused on torture by the French army during the Algerian war (1954-1962). The book received a great deal of attention in France, stimulating renewed discussion about the justification of torture.

Other books include Chienne de Guerre – winner of the Albert Londres prize –a war correspondent's report of the Chechnyan conflict and a moving story of a young woman's struggle and self-discovery; La maison haute. Des russes d'aujourd'hui (Fayard 2002), a monograph about a multi-storey building in Moscow which was constructed by political prisoners under Stalin; La guerre qui n'aura pas eu lieu (Fayard 2004) a collection of further reports from Chechnya; and Lendemains de guerre en Afghanistan et en Irak (Fayard 2004) which won the Prix Erwan Bergot, a journalism prize from the French Ministry of Defence.

Nivat studied at the IEP (L'Institut d'études politiques), the institute of political sciences at the leading university Sciences Po in Paris, and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. In 2001, she received the SAIS-Novartis International Journalism Award at The Johns Hopkins University. Anne Nivat speaks French, Russian and English and is currently working on a book about Central Asia. She lives in Paris, France.

At the Gardner Museum Anne Nivat used her 2004 residency to work on her book, The Wake of War: Encounters in Iraq and Afghanistan, which provided first-hand the voices of the ordinary men and women who at the center of a devastating conflict. In addition, Nivat attended the Democratic Convention in Boston as well as lectures and programs around town. Nivat returned in November to give a talk with Deborah Seward, the International Editor of the Associated Press, as part of the Gardner's The New Censorship lecture series. The talk, Going Global, touched on the reality and media coverage of the wars on terror that were raging around the Globe. They discussed how many media outlets in the U.S. and Europe accepted and followed government propaganda even when it was known to be fallacious such as in the case of Iraq or Chechnya.

Nivat has returned twice to the Gardner to speak about her current projects. In October 2005, Nivat was joined by Ellen Hume, Director of The New Center on Media and Society at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, for an Eye of the Beholder lecture entitled,The Wake of War: Encounters in Iraq. Nivat and Hume discussed Nivat's experiences in Iraq, the growing role and responsibility of journalists on the ground, and how journalists are a bridge between cultures that do not understand one another. In 2008, Nivat joined 2007 AIR and Afghani video artist, Lida Abdul, for an evening conversation entitled, Creativity During Wartime. In this program the two focused on their personal experiences working in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan and the impact of artists and writers who help images of war cross the threshold of national and international consciousness.