ABOUT ME

I’ve been working with writing and writers since the mid-1980s.

From 1992 until 2003 I was the managing editor of Orion, a nonprofit magazine that focuses on nature and environment. In 2003 I became the editor-in-chief of Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit book publisher. In 2005 I returned to Orion, where I served as editor-in-chief until 2020.

Since 2020 I have worked as a freelance writer, editor, book coach, writing instructor, ghostwriter, and publishing and strategic planning consultant.

Books and articles I’ve edited have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the PEN Literary Award, PEN-New England Discovery Prize, the John Oakes Award in Environmental Journalism, the John Burroughs Medal, the Minnesota Book Award, the Oregon Book Award, and The New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

I served as a judge for the National Magazine Award for many years, and as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2016 I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

I was the founder of the Orion Writing Workshop, which was established at Sterling College in Vermont in 2005 (and subsequently moved to the Bread Loaf Writers Workshop, and then to the Omega Institute).

Writers I’ve worked directly with over the course of my editorial career include Wendell Berry, Carol Bly, Joseph Bruchac, Brian Doyle, David James Duncan, Jane Goodall, bell hooks, Bill Holm, Barbara Kingsolver, Drew Lanham, Barry Lopez, Kathleen Dean Moore, Mary Oliver, Scott Russell Sanders, Gary Snyder, Rebecca Solnit, Katrina Vandenberg, and Terry Tempest Williams.

I’m also a life-long birdwatcher and have led birding trips throughout the U.S. and Central America. My book, The Birds of the Berkshire County, will be published later this year by the Nuttall Ornithological Club.