Bryan Pfeiffer

A writer, field biologist and boy explorer, Bryan chases nature around the world. Birds and insects drive a lot of his outdoor adventures, but in truth Bryan finds pleasure in whatever swims, slithers, crawls, walks, hops, flies, sits, grows or decays on life’s long, green path. Which basically means Bryan is easily distracted. Over the years he has been or still is a bread baker, a pot washer, a firefighter, a nature guide, a videographer, a mercenary writer, a newspaper reporter, and a consulting biologist for governments, non-profits and private landowners. Among his various other posts, Bryan is a member of the Vermont Endangered Species Committee, and is a graduate-level lecturer with University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist Program. He just wrapped up his tenure as president of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas.

On his journey toward nature and writing, Bryan set out long ago with a degree in chemistry and a passion for mountaineering, which led to his employment scaling Rust Belt smokestacks to measure (and inhale) air pollutants. From there, downward, with notions of saving the world, he discovered journalism.

Bryan’s articles and essays have appeared in Orion, Aeon Magazine, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Field & Stream, The Progressive, Eating Well, Northern Woodlands and lots of other places. He co-authored Birdwatching in Vermont, a guide to finding and enjoying the state’s birds; co-hosted an award-winning radio program on birds; and wrote and hosted a public television special called Birding in Vermont.

Because he spends so much time outside, Bryan is making glacial progress on another book titled PANTALA: What a Globe-Trotting Dragonfly Tells Us About the World. He lives on a hillside above the North Branch of the Winooski River in Montpelier, Vermont, with his partner Ruth Einstein, a violinist and teacher. They are both owned by an English shepherd named Odin.