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Elizabeth Kolbert

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Elizabeth Kolbert
Kolbert in 2014
Born (1961-07-06) July 6, 1961 (age 64)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materYale University
Occupation(s)Journalist and author
Awards

Elizabeth Kolbert (born July 6, 1961) is an American author and journalist. Since 1999, she has been a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she has covered politics and the environment.[1]

She is the author of five books, including The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History[2]–a New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner–and Under a White Sky, which was one of The Washington Post's ten best books of 2021.[3]

Kolbert is a two-time National Magazine Award winner and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[4] Her work has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Essays. She served as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board from 2017 to 2020.[5]

Early life

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Kolbert spent her early childhood in the Bronx. Her family then relocated to Larchmont, where she remained until 1979.

After graduating from Mamaroneck High School, Kolbert spent four years studying literature at Yale University. In 1983, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Universität Hamburg, in Germany. Her brother, Dan Kolbert of Portland, Maine, is a well-known builder and author.

Career

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Elizabeth Kolbert started working for The New York Times as a stringer in Germany in 1983. In 1985, she went to work for the Metro desk. Kolbert served as the Times' Albany bureau chief from 1988 to 1991 and wrote the Metro Matters column from 1997 to 1998. She published several profiles in the New York Times magazine on figures such as former Governor Mario M. Cuomo[6] and former U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato.[7]

Since 1999, she has been a staff writer for The New Yorker.[1] In her early years at the magazine, she wrote a column about New York politics, “Around City Hall.”[8] Her work from this period was collected in the book The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit, published in 2004.[9]

In 2005, Kolbert published a three-part series in The New Yorker on climate change. The series, "The Climate of Man,"[10] won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest.[11] It became the basis of Kolbert’s second book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, which came out in 2006.[12]

Kolbert has written extensively on environmental issues. She served as the editor for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009.[13] In 2014, her book The Sixth Extinction introduced the concept of a human-caused mass extinction to a general audience. The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year,[14] and it won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.[15] Her 2021 book Under a White Sky explored “the spiralling absurdity of human attempts to control nature with technology.”[16] Kolbert published an alphabet book about climate change called H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z in 2024. The book was illustrated by Wesley Allsbrook.[17]

Kolbert’s writing has won many awards, including a National Academies Communication Award, a Heinz Award, and the BBVA Foundation’s Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication.[18]

Books

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The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2004. The book includes a collection of articles about New York politics and public figures such as Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, and Rev. Al Sharpton. All but one of the articles were originally published in The New Yorker.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2006. In the book, Kolbert travels around the world to document how climate change is significantly affecting the environment and make these scientific developments accessible to a wide audience.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History argues that the Earth is in the midst of a modern, man-made, sixth extinction. In the book, Kolbert chronicles previous mass extinction events and compares them to the accelerated, widespread extinctions during our present time. She also describes specific species extinguished by humans, as well as the ecologies surrounding prehistoric and near-present extinction events. The target audience is the general reader, and scientific descriptions are rendered in understandable prose.

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future focuses on the various kinds of environmental crises created by the Anthropocene and different degrees of technological solutions available to humanity to address them. Nevertheless, the book is also critical of full-blown techno-solutionism. The title refers to the most extreme climate change mitigation strategy, solar geoengineering, designed to reflect sunlight from the earth. Throughout the book she explores how a technological fix for one problem can lead to other problems, while acknowledging the important role these technologies might play.

H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z was published in 2024. Illustrated by artist Wesley Allsbrook, the book documents the history of climate change along with our uncertain future in twenty-six essays for each letter of the alphabet.

Personal life

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Kolbert resides in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband, John Kleiner, and three sons (Ned, Matthew, and Aaron).[19]

Recognition

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  • 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award[20]
  • 2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest[21]
  • 2006 Lannan Literary Fellowship[22]
  • 2006 National Academies Communication Award[23]
  • 2010 16th Annual Heinz Award with special focus on global change[24]
  • 2010 National Magazine Award for Commentary[25]
  • 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Science Writing[26]
  • 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction[27]
  • 2016 Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Environmental Activism[28]
  • 2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award[29]
  • 2017 Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters[30]
  • 2022 BBVA Foundation’s Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication[18]

Bibliography

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  • Kolbert, Elizabeth (2004). The prophet of love : and other tales of power and deceit. New York: Bloomsbury.
  • — (2006). Field notes from a catastrophe : man, nature, and climate change. New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Kolbert, Elizabeth & Francis Spufford, eds. (2007). The ends of the Earth : an anthology of the finest writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Kolbert, Elizabeth, ed. (2009). The best American science and nature writing 2009. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  • — (2014). The sixth extinction : an unnatural history.
  • — (2021). Under a white sky. Penguin Random House.
  • Kolbert, Elizabeth; Wesley Allsbrook (2024). H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9781984863522.

Introductions

  • Van Gelder, Gordon, ed. (2011). Welcome to the greenhouse: new science fiction on climate change. Preface by Elizabeth Kolbert. New York: OR Books.

Essays and Reporting

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Contributors: Elizabeth Kolbert". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
  2. ^ "2015 Pulitzer Prizes". The Pulitzer Prizes.
  3. ^ "Review | The 10 best books of 2021". Washington Post. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  4. ^ "Membership". American Academy of Arts and Letters. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  5. ^ "Elizabeth Kolbert". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  6. ^ "THE STATE OF THE GOVERNOR (Published 1991)". March 10, 1991. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  7. ^ "Senator Pothole (Published 1991)". October 27, 1991. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  8. ^ Nast, Condé. "Around City Hall". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  9. ^ "THE PROPHET OF LOVE: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit by Elizabeth Kolbert". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  10. ^ Kolbert, Elizabeth (May 2, 2005). "The Climate of Man, Part III: What Can be Done?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  11. ^ "NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS 2006 WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION". www.asme.media. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  12. ^ "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climat…". Goodreads. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  13. ^ Kolbert, Elizabeth; Folger, Tim (2009). The best American science and nature writing 2009. Internet Archive. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-00259-0.
  14. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2014 (Published 2014)". December 4, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  15. ^ Times, The New York (April 20, 2015). "2015 Pulitzer Prize Winners in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  16. ^ Ehrenreich, Ben (March 26, 2021). "Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert review – the path to catastrophe". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  17. ^ "H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z". Goodreads. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  18. ^ a b "The BBVA Foundation recognizes journalist Elizabeth Kolbert for her extraordinary ability to communicate the major environmental challenges to a wide global audience". Biophilia. September 27, 2022. Retrieved October 20, 2025.
  19. ^ "Elizabeth Kolbert". Simon & Schuster. November 14, 2012. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  20. ^ "AAAS Science Journalism Award Recipients". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  21. ^ "National Magazine Awards 2006 Winners Announced at 40th Anniversary Celebration". magazine.org. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  22. ^ "Elizabeth Kolbert". lannan.org.
  23. ^ "National Academies Keck Futures Initiative – -". keckfutures.org. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  24. ^ "The Heinz Awards: Elizabeth Kolbert". The Heinz Awards. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  25. ^ "ASME Announces the Winners of the 2010 National Magazine Awards". magazine.org. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  26. ^ "Elizabeth Kolbert – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
  27. ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes – Citation". The Pulitzer Prizes.
  28. ^ Getty, Matt. "The Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism". Dickinson College.
  29. ^ "2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners – SEAL Awards". SEAL Awards. September 26, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  30. ^ "Search Results for "kolbert" – American Academy of Arts and Letters". American Academy of Arts and Letters. n.d. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
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