Diane Ackerman

Ackerman is an essayist, memoirist, poet, and nature writer known for her wide-ranging curiosity and poetic explorations of the natural world. Her many books include The Human Age (2014), The Zookeeper's Wife (2008), and A Natural History of the Senses (1990). She has taught at Columbia and Cornell, among other universities, served as director of the Writers Program at Washington University in St. Louis, and as a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 1995, Ackerman hosted a five-part PBS Nova miniseries, Mystery of the Senses, based on her book. Some of her honors include the John Burroughs Nature Award, Orion Book Award, PEN Henry David Thoreau Award, Literary Lion (of the New York Public Library), and having a molecule named after her-- dianeackerone. The Zookeeper's Wife became a feature film in 2017. She's currently at work on a historical novel.