Elizabeth Kolbert was born on July 6, 1961. She is an American author and journalist. Since 1999, she has worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she has written about politics and the environment.

She has written six books, including The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, which was a New York Times bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize, and Under a White Sky, which was listed as one of The Washington Post’s ten best books of 2021.

Kolbert has won the National Magazine Award twice. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her writing has been published in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Essays. She was a member of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists from 2017 to 2020.

Kolbert has traveled to many places around the world to meet scientists and researchers. She has visited Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Australia, and Iceland to study science and learn about how human activities affect the planet.

Early life

Kolbert grew up in the Bronx during her early childhood. Her family later moved to Larchmont, where she lived until 1979.

Kolbert’s grandfather was a refugee from Nazi Germany. He enjoyed the stories about the West by author Karl May. Later, when he moved to the United States, he took Kolbert’s mother and siblings on trips to the West. Kolbert’s mother continued this tradition with her children. “I thought I, too, should go have adventures out West,” she said.

Kolbert’s father was an eye doctor, and her mother, Marlene Kolbert, was a stay-at-home mom. Her mother was involved in community activities, including serving on the school board and participating in local politics.

After graduating from Mamaroneck High School, Kolbert studied literature at Yale University for four years. In 1983, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Universität Hamburg in Germany. Her brother, [1] of Portland, Maine, is a well-known builder and author.

Career

Elizabeth Kolbert began working for The New York Times as a freelance writer in Germany in 1983. She had previously written for her high school and college newspapers and always enjoyed journalism. Her work appeared in the travel section of The New York Times, and she later returned to the United States for a basic job. In 1985, she joined the Metro desk. Kolbert worked as the Times' Albany bureau chief from 1988 to 1991 and wrote the Metro Matters column from 1997 to 1998. She wrote several profiles in The New York Times magazine about people such as former Governor Mario M. Cuomo and former U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato.

Since 1999, Kolbert has been a staff writer for The New Yorker. In her early years at the magazine, she wrote a column about New York politics called “Around City Hall.” Her writing from this time was published in a book titled The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit in 2004. While working for The New Yorker, Kolbert wrote several profiles, including articles about Hillary Clinton, Rudolph Giuliani, and Michael Bloomberg.

In 2005, Kolbert published a three-part series in The New Yorker about climate change. The series, titled “The Climate of Man,” won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest. It later became the basis for her book Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, which was published in 2006.

Kolbert worked as the editor for The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. In 2014, her book The Sixth Extinction introduced the idea of a human-caused mass extinction to the public. The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year, and it won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Her 2021 book Under a White Sky discussed the challenges of using technology to control nature. Kolbert published a climate change alphabet book titled H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z in 2024, illustrated by Wesley Allsbrook. Her most recent book, Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World, was released in 2025.

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

Books

The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2004. The book includes 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 first published in The New Yorker.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2006. This book was one of Kolbert’s first major works about climate change and the environment. Field Notes from a Catastrophe was listed as one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of the year in 2006. In the book, Kolbert travels around the world to show how climate change is affecting the environment and to explain scientific findings to a wide audience. Kolbert uses contrasts to highlight the seriousness of the ecological crisis and discusses ancient civilizations as a comparison to the modern world.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History was published in 2014 and marked Kolbert’s major success in writing and journalism. The Sixth Extinction argues that Earth is experiencing a sixth extinction caused by humans. In the book, Kolbert describes past mass extinction events and compares them to the rapid extinctions happening today. She also explains specific species that have been lost due to human actions and the ecosystems around past and recent extinction events. The book is written for general readers, with scientific ideas explained in simple language. The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year, The Guardian listed it as one of "100 best nonfiction books of all time," and it won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future focuses on environmental problems caused by the Anthropocene and the different ways technology might help solve them. However, the book also criticizes relying too much on technological solutions. The title refers to the most extreme climate change strategy, solar geoengineering, which aims to reflect sunlight away from Earth. Throughout the book, Kolbert examines how solving one problem with technology can create new problems, while also recognizing the potential benefits of these technologies. In an interview with Red Canary Magazine, Kolbert said, “I’m really interested in the book in this extraordinary moment we live in, where it is increasingly difficult to draw the line between humanity and nature, because we’re such a powerful force on planet Earth.”

H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z was published in 2024. Illustrated by artist Wesley Allsbrook, the book covers the history of climate change and our uncertain future through 26 essays, each tied to a letter of the alphabet.

In an interview with Grist, led by Kate Yoder, Kolbert explained her choice to structure H is for Hope as a series of essays, one for each letter of the alphabet.

Kolbert’s most recent book, Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World, published in 2025, brings together some of her most impactful writing and articles from over the years. Life on a Little-Known Planet was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Time, Esquire, Smithsonian Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal. The book includes stories on topics such as the rights of nature and the "insect apocalypse."

Personal life

E Elizabeth Kolbert lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband, John Kleiner, and their three sons: Ned, Matthew, and Aaron. Kolbert and Kleiner married on February 9, 1991, in Albany, New York. Kleiner earned a master’s degree in physics from Cornell University after graduating from Amherst College. He teaches English as a professor.

Recognition

• Received the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award
• Received the 2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest
• Received the 2006 Lannan Literary Fellowship
• Received the 2006 National Academies Communication Award
• Received the 2010 16th Annual Heinz Award with special focus on global change
• Received the 2010 National Magazine Award for Commentary
• Received the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Science Writing
• Received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
• Received the 2016 Sam Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Environmental Activism
• Received the 2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award
• Received the 2017 Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Received the 2022 BBVA Foundation’s Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication
• Received the 2024 Library Lions Award for outstanding achievements in their respective fields

Essays and reporting

• – (October 7, 2024) “What Happens When the Arctic Melts: How Greenland’s Changes Affect the World.” The New Yorker.
• – (September 4, 2023) “Can Artificial Intelligence Help Us Communicate with Other Species?” Annals of Nature. The New Yorker.
• – (March 20, 2023) “The Little-Known World of Caterpillars: An entomologist works to find them before they disappear.” Annals of Science. The New Yorker.
• – (April 11, 2022) “A Lake in Florida Sues to Stay Protected.” American Chronicles. The New Yorker.
• – (November 21, 2022) “Climate Change from A to Z: The Stories We Tell About Our Planet.” Annals of a Warming Planet. The New Yorker.
• – (January 11, 2021) “CRISPR and Survival: How New Gene-Editing Tech Could Save or End Species.” The Control of Nature. The New Yorker.
• – (December 15, 2013) “The Lost World.” Annals of Extinction. The New Yorker.
• – (November 8, 2009) “Hosed.” Books. The New Yorker.
• – (May 18, 2009) “The Sixth Extinction?” A Reporter At Large. The New Yorker.
• – (April 18, 2005) “The Climate of Man—I: Disappearing Islands, Thawing Permafrost, and Melting Ice: How the Earth Is Changing.” Annals of Science. The New Yorker.