Biography

John Moir is an award-winning author and environmental journalist whose special interest is the preservation of biodiversity. His book, RETURN OF THE CONDOR: The Race to Save Our Largest Bird from Extinction, was a finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize from the Stanford University Libraries and received an Honorable Mention in the annual National Association of Science Writers “Science-in-Society” awards. A new edition was published in late 2023 with an Afterword that updates readers on the progress and continuing challenges facing the recovery program.

Moir has written for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, Birder’s World, Orion, Audubon, High Country News, Birding, Catamaran Literary Reader, Zocalo, Writer’s Digest, Poets and Writers and elsewhere.

He is the author of two nonfiction books, has contributed to four anthologies, and has won more than two dozen writing awards.

Moir is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, National Association of Science Writers, Authors Guild, American Society of Journalists and Authors, and a Fellow in the International League of Conservation Writers. For the past 20 years Moir has volunteered as a docent naturalist at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve.