I write fiction and creative non-fiction for the same reasons I write scientific papers: to describe the world around me, to make some sense of it, and to share what I find with others. I also love making beautiful things. Because I’m up to my neck in the fight to save wild nature—and because there isn't enough being written about it—most of my essays and short stories are based on things I've experienced in my work. 

Photo by me, of plant specimens collected on a 2002 rapid inventory of the Ampiyacu watershed, northern Peru.