Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman is the bestselling author of many nonfiction books, including A Natural History of the Senses, An Alchemy of Mind, Cultivating Delight, A Natural History of Love, and The Zookeeper's Wife, winner of the 2008 Orion Book Award. In addition, she has had her poetry published in leading literary journals and in the books Origami Bridges, I Praise My Destroyer, Jaguar of Sweet Laughter, and others. Diane has received many prizes and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a John Burroughs Nature Award. She has taught at a variety of universities, including Columbia, the University of Richmond, and Cornell. Her essays about nature and human nature have appeared in the New York Times, the Smithsonian, Parade, the New Yorker, and National Geographic, and she hosted a five-hour PBS television series inspired by A Natural History of the Senses.