Caroline Van Hemert

Caroline Van Hemert is an Alaskan writer, adventurer, and wildlife biologist whose journeys have taken her from the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean to the swamps of the Okavango Delta. She is the author of The Sun is a Compass: A 4,000-mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds, which received the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition award for Adventure Travel. She also received the 2020 Alaska Literary Award. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Audubon, Los Angeles Times, and Outside. She works as a research biologist studying wildlife health and avian ecology in the Arctic. When she’s not traveling, she divides her time between a remote off-the-grid cabin in southeast Alaska and a cozy home in downtown Anchorage, where she lives with her husband and two young sons. Read her latest piece in the New York Times and learn more at: www.carolinevanhemert.com.