Shadid has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, in 2004 and 2010, for his coverage of the Iraq War. His experiences in Iraq were the subject for his 2005 book Night Draws Near, an empathetic look at how the war has impacted the Iraqi people beyond the clichés of liberation and insurgency. Night Draws Near won the Ridenhour Book Prize for 2006. He has also won the 2004 Michael Kelly Award, as well as awards from the Overseas Press Club and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict he visited the site of the Qana airstrike. He said that the human suffering and destruction he witnessed in Lebanon was among the worst that he has ever seen, "as bad as Fallujah."

Prior to working at the Post he worked at the Associated Press and then the Boston Globe.

Born in Oklahoma of Lebanese descent, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He is married to Nada Bakri, also a reporter for The New York Times.