Life on a Little-Known Planet
essay-collection · First published 2025
Author guide
Elizabeth Kolbert Books in Order
Elizabeth Kolbert is an American journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker. Her books examine politics, climate change, environmental transformation, and biodiversity loss. She has received two National Magazine Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for The Sixth Extinction.
nonfictionenvironmental writingscience writingjournalismessay
Catalog record updated .
Elizabeth Kolbert's Newest Book
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The Pulitzer Prize-winning work that best represents Kolbert's central environmental and scientific concerns.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (4)
- The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit
nonfiction · 2004
"As a reporter for The New York Times and then The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert has had unparalleled access to the inner workings of the country's most complex and fascinating city. In the profiles assembled here, she talks to…
- Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
nonfiction · 2006
Explores the issue of global warming from every angle, incorporating interviews with researchers and environmentalists, explaining the science and the studies, and presenting the personal tales of those who are being affected most.
- The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
nonfiction · 2014
From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding…
- Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
nonfiction · 2021
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity’s transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it?…
Essays and speeches (2)
- H Is for Hope
essay-collection · 2024
With twenty-six dazzling, interwoven pieces - one for each letter of the alphabet - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert creates an alternately hopeful and alarming manifesto on the climate crisis.
- Life on a Little-Known Planet
essay-collection · 2025
Frequently asked questions about Elizabeth Kolbert
Who is Elizabeth Kolbert?
Elizabeth Kolbert is an American journalist and nonfiction author best known for environmental and science reporting. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1999.
Sources: newyorker.com (opens in a new tab)nationalbook.org (opens in a new tab)
What did Elizabeth Kolbert do before joining The New Yorker?
Kolbert worked as a reporter for The New York Times for fourteen years, beginning as a stringer in Germany and later serving as the paper’s Albany bureau chief. She joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 1999.
Sources: bloomsbury.com (opens in a new tab)trincoll.edu (opens in a new tab)
What inspired Elizabeth Kolbert to focus on climate change?
Kolbert has said her interest sharpened in the early 2000s, when she felt climate change was not receiving enough clear coverage in the mass media. That concern helped lead her toward explanatory environmental journalism.
What awards has Elizabeth Kolbert won?
She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for The Sixth Extinction and is a two-time National Magazine Award winner. Her magazine honors include the 2006 Public Interest award and the 2010 Reviews and Criticism award.
Sources: pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)nationalbook.org (opens in a new tab)asme.media (opens in a new tab)asme.media (opens in a new tab)
What is Elizabeth Kolbert best known for?
Kolbert is best known for making climate change, biodiversity loss, and human impacts on nature accessible through deeply reported journalism. Her New Yorker climate reporting and Pulitzer-winning The Sixth Extinction are central to that reputation.
Sources: pbs.org (opens in a new tab)pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)ansp.org (opens in a new tab)