Elizabeth Kolbert (born July 6, 1961) is an American journalist, author, and visiting fellow at Williams College. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, and as an observer and commentator on the environment for The New Yorker magazine. The Sixth Extinction was a New York Times bestseller and won the Los Angeles Times ' book prize for science and technology. Her book Under a White Sky was one of The Washington Post's ten best books of 2021. Kolbert is a two-time National Magazine Award winner, and in 2022 was awarded the BBVA Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication. Her work has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Essays. Kolbert served as a member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board from 2017 to 2020.

Early life

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

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. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for The Sixth Extinction in 2015.

Personal life

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

Recognition

Books

Essays and reporting

Introductions, forewords and other contributions

Critical studies and reviews of Kolbert's work

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