My latest book is a collection of essays called SERIOUS FACE. People like it. (⭐️Publisher's Weekly: "A rich collection, a portrait of human resilience and helplessness" ⭐️Booklist: "Readers will laugh and tear up" ⭐️BookPage: "Such a gifted storyteller it almost doesn't matter what he's writing about" ⭐️Kirkus: "A master essayist" ⭐️The TODAY Show, best summer read: "If you want humanity, this is it.") I'd love it if you'd order it now from an independent bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple or wherever.

My last book, THIS IS CHANCE!, about the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake and radio broadcaster Genie Chance, was named a best book of 2020 by Amazon, BuzzFeed and Brainpickings. Maybe you missed it because it had the misfortune of coming out exactly as the pandemic was shutting everything down. Please buy a copy at an independent bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Apple.

My first book, WILD ONES, about endangered species in America, was chosen as a best book of 2013 by The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, NPR’s Science Friday and Canada’s National Post among others. Might as well buy it, too!

Here's ALMOST EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WRITTEN. I spent 18 years as a writer for the New York Times Magazine and now write obituaries for the Wall Street Journal.

YOU CAN EMAIL ME THIS WAY. Or SUBSCRIBE TO MY MAILING LIST HERE.
You can also find me on Twitter, though I've mostly stopped using it.

For book publicity matters, please contact Karen Fink at Random House.
My literary agent is Jin Auh at the Wylie Agency.
My agent for film and television is Jason Richman at UTA.

I'm from New Jersey. I live on Bainbridge Island, next to Seattle.


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Last year, I wrote a novel—just to see if I could do it—and wound up having loads of fun. It’s called Gondos: The Novelization of the Major Motion Picture “Gondos.” (When sea monsters invade the Venice canals, it’s up to an ad-hoc team of scientists, soldiers of fortune and traditional gondoliers to battle them back—in militarized, Batmobile-style gondolas called . . . “gondos.”)

I'm serializing the book for free via Substack. SUBSCRIBE!




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I spent many years as a Writer at Large for Pop-Up Magazine, a “live magazine,” performed on stage, am a contributor to many podcasts and radio shows like 99% Invisible, The Daily and This American Life, and a former columnist at Wired. I’ve frequently talked about my reporting on radio and TV shows (Fresh Air, NPR, Radiolab, the Colbert Report, etc) and have spoken at TED. I also created the hit podcast The WALKING Podcast, but it was too popular so I stopped. My work has been anthologized in books like The Best American Science and Nature Writing and the Best American Sports Writing. Occasionally, I collaborate on live storytelling and music projects with members of the Decemberists, like this and this.