Andrew Maraniss (/ˈmærənɪs/ MARE-ə-niss) is an American author, best known for his book, "Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the collision of race and sports in the south",[1] depicting Perry Wallace, the first African-American to play college basketball under an athletic scholarship in the Southeastern Conference (Vanderbilt University) in the 1960s.

He won the school's Charles Foster Alexander Award for excellence in journalism in 1992 and in 2016 was inducted in the Vanderbilt Student Media Hall of Fame.

After Strong Inside, Maraniss published additional works including Games of Deception (2019), Singled Out (2021), and Inaugural Ballers (2022).

[4][5] Marannis' father, David, has been associate editor of The Washington Post'' since 1977[6] and won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1993 for his coverage of Bill Clinton's candidacy during the 1992 presidential election.

When Andrew was young, his father was a budding journalist who found a job at the Trenton Times in New Jersey, that necessitated the family's move from Wisconsin to the east coast.

When Maraniss was in high school, his father was transferred to Austin, Texas, to serve as southwest bureau chief for the Post.

Family members reminded him of his articles about Perry Wallace years prior (which he had not thought of) and the idea clicked.

To the credit of his research, Maraniss uncovered a transcript of a 1968 statement of Wallace's own words to the Vanderbilt race relations committee: "An occurrence of no consequence for a white player was transformed into a nightmare".

[2] Maraniss said, "It was seven years before I had a publisher, so I didn't know if it would ever get out there..."[17] With the book's success, Maraniss was besieged with book signings and requests to appear on talk shows including NBC's Meet the Press, NPR's "All Things Considered ", MSNBC's "Morning Joe " ESPN's "Keith Olberman Show, " ESPN Radio's "The Sporting Life " and others.

He has created an adaption of the original book, for young people, with a slightly different title, "Strong Inside: The True Story of How Perry Wallace Broke College Basketball's Color Line".