Caroline Van Hemert

Caroline Van Hemert is an Alaska-based writer and wildlife biologist with a passion for birds and northern landscapes. Her creative work explores the intersections between climate science, motherhood, and adventure travel, with essays and articles featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Outside, Vogue, and Audubon. Her debut memoir, The Sun is a Compass, was winner of the Banff Mountain Book Adventure Travel Award, short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize, and cited by Amazon, Outside, Forbes, and Bustle as a “must-read” in 2019. Van Hemert is currently writing about shifting personal and ecological narratives in the rapidly changing North. In addition to her creative work, she studies wildlife health in the Arctic and regularly publishes on topics including avian ecology, wildlife disease, and climate change. Her research has been highlighted in National Geographic, MSNBC, and Scientific American, among others. As a public speaker, she has given invited lectures at national and international film and book festivals , literary events, and scientific conferences.