Thor Hanson

Kathleen Ballard Photography

Thor Hanson was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where he now lives on an island with his wife and son. His early interest in the natural world steered him towards a career in conservation biology. Hanson is the author of Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, Buzz, The Triumph of Seeds, Feathers, and The Impenetrable Forest, as well as the illustrated children’s favorite, Bartholomew Quill.  Honors for his books have included The John Burroughs Medal, The Phi  Beta Kappa Award in Science, The AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize, and three  Pacific Northwest Book Awards, and his writing has been translated into  more than ten languages. Hanson’s academic work includes co-editorship  of the volume Warfare Ecology, as well as dozens of papers in such journals as BioScience, Conservation Biology, Environmental Conservation, Neotropical Ornithology, Neotropical Primates, The Pan-Pacfic Entomologist, and Molecular Ecology. His popular articles and essays have appeared in publications ranging from Audubon and Orion to The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, The Los Angeles Times, The American Scholar, The Guardian, and The Huffington Post.​