About

I am a journalist who writes about humans and our ongoing struggles to find an appropriate place on this round, blue planet. My book, At Home on an Unruly Planet (Henry Holt and Co.) tells the stories of four American communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis—and reflects on what it means to make a home in this era of upheaval and transition.

Much of my reporting focuses on climate, energy, and environmental justice, but I’ve also covered a wide range of other topics, including social movements, protest songs, food, agriculture, neuroscience, and health. My writing has appeared in The NewYorker.com, The Nation, Sierra Magazine, Audubon Magazine, Slate, PBS NOVA Next, Seattle Met Magazine, Undark, Hakai, High Country News, and numerous other outlets. Along the way, I’ve had support from grants, fellowships, and residencies from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Artist Trust, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Jack Straw Cultural Center, the Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook, and Edith Cowan University in Australia.

I come from a family of teachers and educators, and I also love offering workshops and classes. I often teach nonfiction writing at Seattle’s venerable Hugo House and have given workshops at various other writers’ centers and retreats.

I am also the former senior editor of YES! Magazine and hold a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I’ve previously caught crickets for an entomologist, taught composition to business majors in rural Uganda and biology to pre-med students, helped coordinate urban policy programs in Washington, D.C., and worked in a reservation community along a river in rural South Dakota.

I live in Seattle with my husband—who is a community mental health counselor and a kind, adventurous human—and a sweet feline. In my spare time, I tend a raspberry patch in the backyard and make frequent excursions by boot and bicycle into the extraordinary forest, mountain, and coastal landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. I am also a songwriter and musician, a bean-eater, a kayak-paddler, and an auntie.