Biz journal reporter to write book about WaMu’s rise and fall

Kristen Grind, a business reporter at the Puget Sound Business Journal, has signed a contract with the Simon & Schuster division Touchstone Group to write a book about Washington Mutual, the lender that crashed during the current economic crisis.

A story the the Business Journal site says, “‘The Rise and Fall of WaMu,’ scheduled to be published in 2012, will trace the bank’s rapid ascent in the 1990s and its stunning collapse during the financial crisis of 2008, incorporating new reporting about the complicated web of relationships between Washington, D.C., and Wall Street.

“Grind, who covers banking for the Business Journal, was part of a team that was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2010 for coverage of WaMu and the foreclosure crisis. The book deal grew out of her reporting for the Seattle-based newspaper in 2008 and 2009.

“‘We are exceedingly proud of the work that Kirsten Grind has brought to Business Journal readers,’ said Emory Thomas Jr., publisher of the Puget Sound Business Journal. ‘Her talent and energy, combined with superb editing by Managing Editor Alwyn Scott and critical contributions from reporter teammates including Jeanne Lang Jones, resulted in a stellar series of reports on WaMu’s downfall. It’s a rich and important topic, one whose implications stretch across the entirety of the financial world.”

“Grind will take a leave from the paper to research and write the book. She was represented by Seattle agent Elizabeth Wales.”

Read more here.