Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert (born 1961) is an American journalist and author and visiting fellow at Williams College. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,[1] and as an observer and commentator on environmentalism for The New Yorker magazine.[2] As of March 2017, Kolbert serves as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board.[3]

Elizabeth Kolbert
Born	July 6, 1961
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale University
Occupation	Journalist and author
Spouse(s)	John Kleiner
Awards	National Magazine Award (2006) National Magazine Award (2010) Heinz Award (2010) Pulitzer Prize (2015)

Youth and education

Kolbert spent her early childhood in the Bronx, New York; her family then relocated to Larchmont, New York, 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 the Universität Hamburg, in Germany.

Career

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.

Since 1999, she has been a staff-writer for The New Yorker.[2]

She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her book "The Sixth Extinction" in 2015. She received the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism at Dickinson College in 2016 and the Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2017. She has received two National Magazine Awards, for Public Interest in 2006 and for Reviews and Criticism in 2010

Personal life

Kolbert resides in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband, John Kleiner, and three sons.[4] She appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on February 11, 2014, to discuss her book The Sixth Extinction.

Awards

• 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award[5]
• 2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest[6]
• 2006 Lannan Literary Fellowship[7]
• 2006 National Academies Communication Award[8]
• 16th Annual Heinz Award with special focus on global change, 2010[9]
• 2010 National Magazine Award for Commentary[10]
• 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Science Writing[11]
• 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction[12]
• 2016 Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Environmental Activism[13]
• 2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award[14]

Bibliography

Books

• 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.
• Kolbert, Elizabeth (2021). Under a White Sky. Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780593136270. Retrieved December 22, 2020.

Essays and reporting

• Kolbert, Elizabeth (October 14–21, 2002). "The Lost Mariner". The Critics. Books. The New Yorker. 78 (xx): 206–211.
• — (March 29, 2010). "Batless". Postcard from Vermont. The New Yorker. 86 (6): 42–43.[15]
• — (March 11, 2013). "Up all night : the science of sleeplessness". Modern Life. The New Yorker. 89 (4): 24–27.
• — (October 21, 2013). "Head count : fertilizer, fertility, and the clashes over population growth". The Critics. Books. The New Yorker. 89 (33): 96–99.
• — (December 16, 2013). "The lost world : the mastodon's molars". Annals of Extinction. Part One. The New Yorker. 89 (41): 28–38.
• — (December 23–30, 2013). "the lost world: fossils of the future". Annals of Extinction. Part Two. The New Yorker. 89 (42): 48–56.
• — (March 3, 2014). "Big score : when Mom takes the SAT's". American Chronicles. The New Yorker. 90 (2): 38–41.
• — (April 14, 2014). "Rough forecasts". The Talk of the Town. Comment. The New Yorker. 90 (8): 21–22.
• — (July 28, 2014). "Stone soup". Annals of Alimentation. The New Yorker. 90 (21): 26–29.[16]
• — (August 25, 2014). "Bug bed". The Talk of the Town. Field Studies. The New Yorker. 90 (24): 20.[17]
• — (December 22–29, 2014). "The big kill : New Zealand's crusade to rid itself of mammals". Annals of Extermination. The New Yorker. 90 (41): 120–126, 128–129.
• — (January 12, 2015). "Civic duty". The Talk of the Town. Postcard from Rome. The New Yorker. 90 (43): 20, 22.[18]
• — (February 2, 2015). "Such a Stoic : how Seneca became Ancient Rome's philosopher-fixer". The Critics. Books. The New Yorker. 90 (46): 66–69.
• — (February 16, 2015). "The last trial : a great-grandmother, Auschwitz, and the arc of justice". Letter from Berlin. The New Yorker. 91 (1): 24–30.
• — (August 8–15, 2016). "Swords, sandals". The Talk of the Town. The Pictures. The New Yorker. 92 (24): 21–22.[19]
• — (October 24, 2016). "Greenland Is Melting". Letter from Greenland. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
• — (December 19–26, 2016). "Rage against the machine : will robots take your job?". The Critics. Books. The New Yorker. 92 (42): 114–118.[20]
• — (June 19, 2017). "Incident". The Talk of the Town. Art's Sake Dept. The New Yorker. 93 (17): 23.[21]
• — (May 20, 2019). "Last chances". The Talk of the Town. Comment. The New Yorker. 95 (13): 23–24.[22]
• — (May 20, 2019). Photographs by Vasantha Yogananthan. "The ice stupas : artificial glaciers at the edge of the Himalayas". Portfolio. The New Yorker. 95 (13): 54–67.[23]
• — (January 13, 2020). "Don't wait". The Talk of the Town. Comment. The New Yorker. 95 (44): 13–14.[24]

Introductions, forewords and other contributions

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

Critical studies and reviews of Kolbert's work

Field notes from a catastrophe

• Gosnell, Mariana (March 16, 2006). "In epoch of man, Earth takes a beating". The New York Times.

The sixth extinction

• Gore, Al (February 10, 2014). "Without a trace". Book Review. The New York Times.

References

1. "2015 Pulitzer Prizes". www.pulitzer.org.
2. "Contributors: Elizabeth Kolbert". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
3. "Science and Security Board". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. March 30, 2017.
4. "Author Profile: Elizabeth Kolbert" Archived November 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Simon & Schuster
5. "AAAS Science Journalism Award Recipients". aaas.org.
6. "National Magazine Awards 2006 Winners Announced at 40th Anniversary Celebration". magazine.org.
7. "Elizabeth Kolbert". lannan.org.
8. "National Academies Keck Futures Initiative - -". keckfutures.org.
9. "The Heinz Awards: Elizabeth Kolbert". The Heinz Awards. The Heinz Awards. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
10. "ASME Announces the Winners of the 2010 National Magazine Awards". magazine.org.
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. "The Pulitzer Prizes - Citation". pulitzer.org.
13. Getty, Matt. "The Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism". www.dickinson.edu.
14. "2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners - SEAL Awards". SEAL Awards. September 26, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
15. On White nose syndrome.
16. The Paleolithic Diet.
17. Beecher's Trilobite Bed.
18. Renzo Piano.
19. Online version is titled "Morgan Freeman's 'Ben-Hur'".
20. Online version is titled "Our automated future".
21. Online version is titled "James Turrell makes light physical".
22. Online version is titled "Climate change and the new age of extinction".
23. Online version is titled "The art of building artificial glaciers".
24. Online version is titled "What will another decade of climate crisis bring?".

External links

Media related to Elizabeth Kolbert at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• "An Interview with Elizabeth Kolbert", Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) 2006
• Appearances on C-SPAN