Meet the heroes leading our community of exploration.
We are all about the people who venture to the frontiers of human knowledge. At Hidden Compass, scientists, explorers, artists, and journalists are celebrated. Start by reading and sharing our stories. Go behind the scenes and meet the storytellers. Get involved and directly support their work with a contribution.
Featured Storytellers
Tim Brinkhof
Tim is a Dutch journalist from Amsterdam who has spent the better part of his adult life traveling around the world as a digital nomad, looking for stories to tell and things to sketch.
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Heather M. Surls
From her adopted home in Amman, Jordan, Heather writes about Middle Eastern culture, refugees, and spirituality, while raising two energetic boys and enjoying friendships with women from Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.
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Craig K. Collins
Craig K. Collins is a San Diego-based writer and the author of Thunder in the Mountains (Lyons Press, 2014) and Midair (2016); he has a novel due out later this year.
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Ella Calland
Bristol-based writer and photographer Ella Calland’s passion for the power of stories has inspired her to document her trips around the world. Her 35mm photography seeks out the cinematic in the everyday.
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Tim Bird
Starting each day with the intention, not always successful in seizing it, Tim Bird is always looking for creative ways to deal with the fact that he gets bored easily.
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Past Contributors
Victoria Sanderson
Victoria Sanderson is a restless writer always googling new adventures.
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Joshua Zukas
Joshua Zukas is a Hanoi-based writer covering travel, architecture, culture, and innovation in Vietnam and, occasionally, beyond.
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Lavanya Sunkara
Lavanya Sunkara is a New York City-based writer who focuses on sustainable travel, conservation, and adventure.
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Rebecca Deurlein
Rebecca spent the first half of her life writing for others; now she's pursuing her own passions and strengthening her own voice. A freelancer based in Houston, Rebecca loves to discover new places and new people, then delve into the stories that make them so interesting.
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Nicholas Bratton
Nicholas is a lifelong adventurer and traveler with a knack for finding unexpected ways into unusual situations — like guest DJ-ing on Zambian national radio.
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Scott Denholm
Scott Denholm is a contemporary ocean artist and surfer in Australia, painting and chasing scenes of distant coastlines and oceans.
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Keith Salmon
Keith Salmon is a contemporary landscape artist whose paintings and soundscapes are based on his walks in the Scottish Highlands.
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Megan Dohm
Megan Dohm is a writer and photographer based in North Carolina who enjoys tracking down 18th-century court documents.
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Hayli Nicole
Hayli Nicole is a perpetual traveler, collector of stories, and lover of all things mundane.
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Noo Saro-Wiwa
Noo Saro-Wiwa is the Pathfinder Prize-winning visual storyteller and journalist for “In Tété’s Footsteps: A Cultural Expedition in Greenland.”
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Jodi Cash
Jodi Cash is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize finalist and expedition leader for “The Music of Care.” She’s also a documentary filmmaker on a quest for characters and secluded swimming holes.
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Ana Norman Bermúdez
As a freelance photographer and writer, Ana Norman Bermúdez divides her time between the worlds of journalism and international development. She's a passionate animal rights supporter, yet struggles to keep her houseplants alive.
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Hudson Lindenberger
Hudson Lindenberger lives to tell the stories that describe life, whatever they may be.
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Heather M. Surls
From her adopted home in Amman, Jordan, Heather writes about Middle Eastern culture, refugees, and spirituality, while raising two energetic boys and enjoying friendships with women from Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.
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Sivani Babu
Sivani Babu is the co-founder, co-CEO, and creative director of Hidden Compass. By merging journalism, art, and exploration, she tells stories that offer perspective, context, and an awe-inspiring sense of scale to the human experience.
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Karen Green
Karen Green is a writer, mother, feminist, Canuck, and always up for a new journey and a hot coffee.
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Richard Pallardy
Richard Pallardy is a freelance science writer. He is endlessly fascinated by the behavior and evolution of living things. By writing about these subjects, he hopes to draw attention to their importance — and to the joy that this knowledge can bring to everyday life.
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Kang-Chun Cheng
Kang-Chun (KC) Cheng is an environmental photojournalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, reporting on land-use conflicts, the impact of climate change and technology on Indigenous communities, and China-Africa relations.
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Erin Byrne
Erin Byrne's books, travel essays, poetry, fiction, films, workshops, and events capture the mystical transformations unleashed by travel and connections across the globe.
View ProfileSadek Hefni Shorbagi
Sadek Hefni Shorbagi is a Pathfinder Prize finalist, researcher, and Arabic translator for “Pharaoh’s Hot Springs.”
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Michele Bigley
Above all her accolades as a writer, activist, and teacher, Michele Bigley is most proud of her identity as a mother. Her two sons, Kai and Nikko, remind her every day that making the world a better place is the only work worth pursuing.
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Moriah Costa
Moriah Costa is a freelance journalist and editor by day and an artist by night.
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Karen Burshtein
Karen Burshtein is an independent writer, editor, and translator who writes about all aspects of Canadian culture and history.
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Wesley Morgan
Wesley Morgan is a military-affairs reporter who has covered the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2007. A native of the Boston area, he began embedding with combat units as a 19-year-old freelancer.
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Annie Davidson
Annie Davidson is a Melbourne-based freelance illustrator whose drawings feature meticulous patterns & details, atmospheric color palettes and whimsical subjects.
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Megan Taylor Morrison
Megan Taylor Morrison is a best-selling author, semi-professional dancer, and certified business coach.
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Alex Krowiak
Alex Krowiak is a San Diego–based photojournalist and expedition guide working to tell stories of people, nature, and the changing relationship between the two.
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Chase Nelson
Chase Nelson is a poet-explorer who likes howling at the moon and laughing until it hurts at big tables full of strangers in foreign lands.
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Barbara Barrielle
Barbara Barrielle writes about wine and travel and is an equal opportunity traveler. She loves to go everywhere and meet the locals, the heart of travel.
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Dr. Rachel Blaser
An associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of San Diego, Rachel Blaser enjoys exploring ways to make science more accessible and exciting to the public through imagery and storytelling.
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Anna Elkins
Anna Elkins is a traveling poet and painter who has lived in the shadows of the Rockies and the Alps, and on the shores of the Caribbean and Micronesian seas.
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Russell Bradley
Russell's parents threw him in the ocean when he was five years old. He cried for a minute but then never got out. He's a marine biologist, improviser, storyteller, writer, and nature lover.
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Liz Shemaria
Liz Shemaria is a founding editor at Hidden Compass, an award-winning journalist, and a third-generation Northern Californian who has trekked solo in the Himalaya, interviewed artists in military-ruled Burma, and rode an overnight train across Egypt on her birthday.
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Pier Nirandara
Meet bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and acclaimed underwater photographer Pier Nirandara, Hidden Compass’s 2024 Storyteller in Residence.
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Maggie Scotilla
After leaving an art program to pursue psychology — and after nearly 20 years away from drawing — Maggie Scotilla took a pen and ink class in 2017 and rediscovered her passion for making art.
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Emilie Filou
Emilie Filou is a freelance journalist specializing in the environment, business, sustainability and development issues, with a particular interest in Africa.
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Lance Garland
Lance Garland is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize winner and expedition leader for “Beyond the False Summit: A Matterhorn Expedition to Unearth the Queer Pioneers of Alpinism.” In the moments between fighting fires, climbing mountains, and sailing seas, he writes.
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Don George
Author of "The Way of Wanderlust: The Best Travel Writing of Don George," and of "How to Be a Travel Writer," the world's bestselling travel writing guide, Don George is a legendary travel writer and editor. He is currently Editor at Large for National Geographic Travel.
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Kelsey Camacho
Kelsey Camacho focuses on identity and landscape in the Arctic. She's also training for her first dogsledding race.
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Daniel Hudon
Daniel Hudon is a writer and educator based in Boston who likes to get lost in nature, particularly among old trees.
View ProfileMathieu Bisnaire Poirier
Mathieu Bisnaire Poirier is a Pathfinder Prize finalist and researcher for “Pharaoh’s Hot Springs.”
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Cherene Sherrard
Originally from Los Angeles, Cherene Sherrard is a poet, scholar, and essayist.
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Morgan Tilton
Molded and catalyzed by natural environments, Morgan Tilton is a creative writer and reporter fueled by snowfall, shooting stars, and Nuun hydration tablets. She specializes in outdoor industry news, adventure travel, and stories of human endurance.
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Hidden Compass
Hidden Compass is an award-winning, women-led media company that’s forging an Alliance to turn storytellers and explorers into heroes and champion a new age of discovery. Learn more by clicking “about” in the navigation bar.
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Jane Ellen Stevens
Jane Ellen Stevens — a longtime health, science, and technology journalist — is the founder and publisher of PACEs Connection (PACEs = positive and adverse childhood experiences), which includes the news site ACEsTooHigh.com and the social network PACEsConnection.com.
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Yasaswini Sampathkumar
Yasaswini Sampathkumar is a writer and recovering scientist who's learning to be as sustainable as her grandmother.
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Robert Annis
After spending nearly a decade as a reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, Robert Annis finally broke free of the shackles of gainful employment and now freelances full-time, specializing in outdoor-travel journalism.
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Mike Bernhardt
Mike Bernhardt is an eclectic writer who loves the water, be it diving coral reefs in Indonesia, swimming with sea lions in the Galápagos, or researching drowned ancestors off the coast of Ireland.
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Robin Catalano
A specialist in coastal travel, the Northeastern U.S., animal conservation, food and craft beverages, and Spain, Robin Catalano is a travel journalist and the creator of the travel blog Once More to the Shore.
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Olivier Guiberteau
Olivier Guiberteau is a freelance journalist and photographer who covers travel, sports, culture, and adventure. Based in London, he has lived and worked in multiple countries around the world.
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Jennifer Simonson
Jennifer is a Texas-based writer who travels in search of good conversation, tasty ice cream, fast water slides, and harsh moonshine.
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Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee
Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee is a wordmonger, conceptual artist, sharer of food, and professional accidentalist. You might catch a glimpse of her climbing a mountain, planting seeds, running in waves, baking cake, or staring at clouds — laughing all the while.
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James Michael Dorsey
James Michael Dorsey is an award-winning author, and explorer, who has spent decades documenting vanishing cultures in Africa and Asia.
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Keith Skinner
Keith Skinner is an award-winning writer who is endlessly curious about the why of things.
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Russell Frank
As a writer and a writing instructor, Russell Frank’s mission in life is to foster appreciation of a keen observation, a well-turned phrase, and a correctly used apostrophe.
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Shoshi Parks
Shoshi Parks is an anthropologist turned writer of the quirky and fascinating.
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Melissa Hart
When not peering through her magnifying glass at slime molds, Melissa Hart writes both fiction and non-fiction with a particular interest in history and Pacific Northwest nature.
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Maud Rowell
Maud Rowell is a blind writer and film photographer from London with a background in Japanese studies. Her mission is to educate and inform others about the realities of sight loss.
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Janna Brancolini
Janna Brancolini is an American journalist based in Milan, Italy. She is drawn to stories where law meets politics, where the environment intersects with finance, where cultures clash, and where languages collide.
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Clara Milo
Clara Milo is a photographer and filmmaker who creates surrealist universes to better understand the world around her.
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Tulsi Rauniyar
Tulsi Rauniyar is an independent journalist and documentary photographer based in Kathmandu, Nepal. She infuses new perspectives into her work around environmental and humanitarian issues — an intersection of worlds that needs critical thinking and heart.
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Tim Brinkhof
Tim is a Dutch journalist from Amsterdam who has spent the better part of his adult life traveling around the world as a digital nomad, looking for stories to tell and things to sketch.
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Shannon Donaghy
Shannon Donaghy is a queer poet, writer, and world traveler from Philadelphia, PA.
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Jennifer Billock
Jennifer Billock is an award-winning writer, best-selling author, and writing coach. She is currently dreaming of an around-the-world trip with her Boston terrier.
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Valerie Stimac
Valerie Stimac is an Oakland-based space tourism and travel writer who has spent time living in Alaska, London, and the Pacific Northwest.
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Lottie Gross
Lottie Gross is an award-winning travel writer and editor from south Oxfordshire, England, who has traveled the world updating guidebooks in India and reporting on community projects in Uganda.
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Laine Gonzales
Laine Gonzales is a biologist and high school science teacher. When school is not in session, she’s typically on the road.
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Tania Amochaev Romanov
Award-winning travel writer and photographer Tania Romanov made her first international trip at six months old — as a refugee — and hasn't stopped traveling since.
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Emily Manthei
Emily writes words and makes films that explore subcultures and cultural paradoxes.
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Melinda Misuraca
Melinda Misuraca is a writer who likes having conversations in parked cars, taking naps in meadows, and drinking cold, bitter beers while shooting pool.
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Sonya Pevzner
Sonya Pevzner's experience as a queer Russian-Jewish refugee informs much of her work, from storytelling to activism.
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Erik Jaråker
Erik Jaråker is the Pathfinder Prize-winning videographer and drone pilot for “In Tété’s Footsteps: A Cultural Expedition in Greenland.”
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Tim Bird
Starting each day with the intention, not always successful in seizing it, Tim Bird is always looking for creative ways to deal with the fact that he gets bored easily.
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Jeff Greenwald
Oakland-based Jeff Greenwald remains either the world's most obscure well-known travel writer, or the best-known obscure travel writer.
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J.R. Patterson
J.R. Patterson was born in Manitoba in 1989 and raised on a beef and grain farm on the Canadian prairies. His experiences as a farm laborer, factory worker, and musician inform much of his writing.
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Jayme Moye
Jayme Moye is an American-Canadian writer based in the mountains of British Columbia.
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Elaine J. Masters
Ever curious and hungry for adventure, Elaine Masters can't resist ducking into doorways and pulling over on the side of the road in pursuit of a story.
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Dr. Irene Salter
There’s a realm called “wonder,” where science and magic coexist. It’s where Irene Salter lives, and through her exquisite storytelling, she brings you along on the adventure.
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Emilienne Malfatto
Emilienne Malfatto is an award-winning photojournalist covering post-conflict and social issues, mostly in Iraq.
View ProfileJordan Cannon
Jordan Cannon is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize winner and expedition climbing expert for “Beyond the False Summit: A Matterhorn Expedition to Unearth the Queer Pioneers of Alpinism.”
View ProfileDr. Tara Rajendran
Dr. Tara Rajendran is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize finalist and producer for “The Music of Care.”
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Dr. Gilad Fiskus
Dr. Gilad Fiskus is a cultural photographer whose career as a dentist influences the way he photographs people as he travels the world.
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Kori Perten
Kori Perten is a writer and editor based in the Boston area—when she’s not traveling the globe, that is.
View ProfileBen Tibbetts
Ben Tibbetts is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize winner and expedition photographer for “Beyond the False Summit: A Matterhorn Expedition to Unearth the Queer Pioneers of Alpinism.”
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Sugato Mukherjee
Sugato Mukherjee is a Kolkata, India-based photographer and writer whose work on the sulfur miners of East Java was recognized by UNESCO.
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Edmée van Rijn
Edmée van Rijn, born and raised in the Netherlands, is an experienced freelance camerawoman, editor, and producer working across the Middle East and beyond.
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Annelise Jolley
Annelise Jolley is a San Diego-based journalist and essayist who writes about food, travel, and the terrain between.
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William Costa
William Costa is a freelance journalist based in Asunción, Paraguay. His aim is to continue bringing underreported stories to international audiences through journalism that is thorough and respectful.
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Sabine K. Bergmann
Sabine K. Bergmann is the co-founder and co-CEO of Hidden Compass. She’s also an award-winning journalist whose cinematic stories invite readers to explore places and characters who connect us to the grand tapestry of human wisdom, kinship, and purpose.
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Emily Larsen
Emily Larsen is a designer and illustrator who lives and works in Salem, Massachusetts.
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Alison Konecki
Alison Konecki crusades for the arts by day, writes by night, and travels as often as possible.
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Anna Richards
Anna Richards has been scribbling since she could hold a crayon. In 2021 she turned her hobby into a full-time job and relocated from the UK to Lyon, France. She was drawn by a love of the mountains, and the French language and culture (not to mention the wine and cheese).
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Erhan Kahveci
Erhan Kahveci is a Milan-based documentary photographer driven by a desire to see people and the hidden parts of the world, and capture society through his images.
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Eric Dusenbery
Eric Dusenbery is a photographer and storyteller who doesn’t mind getting lost to find ordinary subjects that are otherwise overlooked.
View ProfileCharlotte Austin
Charlotte Austin is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize winner and expedition advisor for “Beyond the False Summit: A Matterhorn Expedition to Unearth the Queer Pioneers of Alpinism.”
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Meenakshi J
Meenakshi J is an India-based freelance writer who finds solace in wholesome vegetarian food, instrumental music, historical ruins, and ancient art.
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Diane Selkirk
Diane Selkirk is a traveler who believes the best moments come when you toss away the bucket list and follow your own curiosity to adventure.
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Melissa Banigan
Melissa is a journalist and photographer with work in the Washington Post, BBC Travel, and NPR, among many others.
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Kelly A. Harrison
Kelly A. Harrison, losing track of all the amazing things she's done, thanks the gods for digital photos and Adobe products.
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Martha Ezell
Martha Ezell is a freelance writer based in Petaluma, California. After careers in documentary filmmaking and academic technology, she now devotes her time to writing and travel.
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Rachel Wisniewski
Rachel Wisniewski is an independent photojournalist and writer based in Philadelphia, PA.
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Ella Calland
Bristol-based writer and photographer Ella Calland’s passion for the power of stories has inspired her to document her trips around the world. Her 35mm photography seeks out the cinematic in the everyday.
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Ellen Murray
Ellen is a multidisciplinary artist, PhD student, and, most importantly, a mother of two (cats): Raisin Bran and Apricot.
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Craig K. Collins
Craig K. Collins is a San Diego-based writer and the author of Thunder in the Mountains (Lyons Press, 2014) and Midair (2016); he has a novel due out later this year.
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Lola Akinmade Åkerström
Lola Akinmade Åkerström is the 2023 Pathfinder Prize-winning expedition leader and cinematic art director for “In Tété’s Footsteps: A Cultural Expedition in Greenland.”
View ProfileDr. Roxanne Fournier
Roxanne ("Roxy") Fournier is a Pathfinder Prize expedition finalist, expedition leader, and researcher for “Pharaoh’s Hot Springs.”
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Brandon McWilliams
Brandon McWilliams is a writer, outdoor educator, and college student who tells stories to encourage people to think about how they treat the world around them.
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Will Cordeiro
Will Cordeiro cannot drive a car; is not on social media; and may or may not be a human.
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Anna Polonyi
Anna Polonyi is a writer and former reporter with a love for uncovering stories of unexpected courage in history.
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Allison Torres Burtka
Allison Torres Burtka is a freelance writer and editor who loves to write about the transformative power of sports and the outdoors.
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Allison Smith
Allison Nicole Smith is a New York City-based freelance writer and a reporter at Modern Retail. She’s learned how to not use the Oxford comma.
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Jordan Ranft
Jordan Ranft is a writer and behavioral healthcare worker from the Bay Area. He enjoys writing about arts, culture, the environment, and the strange and oftentimes unnerving intersection between societal artifice and the natural world.
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Jenna Scatena
Jenna Scatena is an independent journalist based in Istanbul and San Francisco, whose work explores the intersection of place and culture.
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Louisa Deasey
Louisa Deasey is a Francophile based in Melbourne, Australia who makes up for it by drinking coffee from a soup-sized bowl each morning.
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Gemina Garland-Lewis
Gemina Garland-Lewis is a Pacific Northwest and Baja CA Sur-based photographer, scientist, and explorer whose work explores human-animal-environment relationships around the globe. She is a lover of the outdoors, curiosity, and cheese.
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Lauren Napier
Lauren Napier finds solace in melody and the written word. She has penned a children’s book, <em>All My Animals,</em> and stories for NPR Berlin, amongst other texts and songs.
View ProfileGresham Cash
Gresham Cash is a 2024 Pathfinder Prize finalist and producer for “The Music of Care.”
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Robert Holmes
From the 1975 British Everest Expedition to the vineyards of the world, Robert Holmes’ career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific travel photographers has extended more than 40 years.
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Krishan Coupland
Krishan Coupland earned an MA in creative writing, won the Manchester Fiction Prize, and is unduly preoccupied with theme parks.
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Jacqueline Kehoe
Jacqueline writes about, thinks about, and photographs America's public lands.
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Henry Sharpe
Henry Sharpe is a Canadian illustrator and paleontology student with a penchant for hiking in Crocs.
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Amanda Castleman
Despite her yoga and yogurt tendencies, author Amanda Castleman is a former wilderness guide who remains happiest when grubbing around in nature.
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Rachel Pieh Jones
Rachel Pieh Jones writes about life at the crossroads of faith and culture. Her work is influenced by living in the Horn of Africa, raising Third Culture Kids, and adventurous exploration of the natural world.
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Russell Porcas
Russell Porcas is an old-school film photographer who was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age and now collects and restores old snapshots with his wife, Melinda, for their project "Paper Ghosts."
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Ashley Seashore
Ashley Seashore is a Marin County-based writer who wears flip flops with abandon.
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Garrett Martin
Garrett Martin is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, photographer, and conservationist who's proud to call southern Appalachia his home.
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Colin Daileda
Colin Daileda is a journalist in Bengaluru, whose work has appeared in Atlas Obscura, Longreads, and others. His latest for Hidden Compass is part of a series on humanity’s evolving and often confrontational relationship with water, and is supported by the Pulitzer Center.
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Paul Fischer
Paul Fischer is an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in France, he now lives in the United Kingdom.
View ProfileOrganizations We Support
Committee to Protect Journalists
Our mission is to celebrate journalists. This means it is our responsibility to help make the world safer for them. The Committee to Protect Journalists is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting journalists globally, defending their rights, and fighting for freedom of the press. Their emergency response team provides life-saving support to journalists in peril.
Learn MoreStoryCorps
We believe stories have the power to bring people together. This can only happen when those stories are collected, shared, and preserved. To date, StoryCorps has gathered and recorded the stories of more than half a million people to remind us of our shared humanity, nurture compassion, and preserve a historical record for future generations.
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