Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and the author, most recently, of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, a New York Times best seller. His writing has received numerous awards, including the John Burroughs prize (for the best natural history essay in 1997), the QPB New Vision Award (for his first book, Second Nature), the 2000 Reuters-I.U.C.N. Global Award for Environmental Journalism for his reporting on genetic engineering and the 2003 American Humane Society’s Genesis Award for his writing on animal agriculture. The Botany of Desire received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best non-fiction work of 2001, and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon. Beginning in 2003 he will be the Knight Professor of Journalism at Berkeley.

Pollan’s previous books are A Place of My Own (1997) and The Botany of Desire (2001). His work is included in many anthologies, including Best American Essays and The Norton Book of Nature Writing. In addition to publishing regularly in the New York Times Magazine, his articles have appeared in Harper’s, Vogue, Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Garden Design, Gardens Illustrated, and House & Garden. Pollan is also a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, where he served for many years as Executive Editor.

Pollan grew up on Long Island, and was educated at Bennington College, Oxford University, and Columbia University.