David Gessner

David Gessner is the author of thirteen books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism. His latest is A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water, of which congressman Jamie Raskin says: “This is a work of astonishing and visionary scope but also sharply intimate and grounded detail. David Gessner’s kaleidoscopic journey sweeps in mammoth forces of nature, seemingly uncontrollable forces in society and economy, and an utterly refreshing, almost heartbreaking faith in language, communication and the potential of the human word to save the human world.”

Gessner's other books include Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness, Return of the Osprey, and the New York Times-bestselling All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West. Gessner is a professor and former Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His prizes include a Pushcart Prize, the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay, the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, "The Call of the Wild." He is married to the novelist Nina de Gramont, author of The Christie Affair.