Ann Vileisis

Ann Vileisis is the award-winning author of three books that explore culture and nature through history, offering insight to current issues and hope for the future. As an independent scholar, Ann has pursued path-breaking topics in environmental history. Intrigued by stories of food and ecology, and especially interconnections between the two, she is particularly drawn to history that illuminates issues we face today.

Ann first became interested in history and environmental issues as an undergraduate at Yale where she earned her B.A. After completing an M.A. at Utah State University, she decided against an academic career and set to work as an independent scholar and writer, along with her husband, author and photographer Tim Palmer.

Ann’s first book, Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America’s Wetlands, received prestigious honors from two national history organizations. The American Historical Association—the nation’s largest and oldest group of professional historians—recognized Ann with its Herbert Feis Award for the best book by an independent or public historian. The American Society of Environmental History awarded the book its George Perkins Marsh Prize for the best environmental history book of 1997. Discovering the Unknown Landscape was reviewed widely in journals, newspapers and magazines, including Sierra and Smithsonian.

While researching her second book, Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food comes from and why we need to get it back, Ann was a short-term fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History as well as a writer-in-residence at the Mesa Refuge. Kitchen Literacy was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award and was recognized as one of “50 books that will change your life,” by Real Simple Magazine. With Kitchen Literacy, Ann was a guest on radio shows, including NPR’s West Coast Live, Martha Stewart Living Radio, Thom Hartmann, Dining Around with Gene Burns, Food & Wine Talk and A Chef’s Table, as well as many podcasts. Ann’s latest book Abalone explores the intimate connections between food and nature on California’s coast.

Read more about Ann and her work at https://www.annvileisis.com/books.