photo by Michael Hnatov.
Neil is a writer based in Brooklyn.
For more than 15 years he’s written for National Geographic, reporting around the world at the intersections of conflict, climate science and cultural change. His first book, Frostlines, about the transformation of the Arctic, will be published in December 2025 by Ecco.
Neil’s work regularly appears in National Geographic, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and The American Scholar, among other publications. He is currently a writer on the science blog Last Word on Nothing. Between 2006 and 2015, he covered conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kurdistan.
He also works in film, television, and audio, and his investigative podcast, Unfinished: Deep South, was nominated for a Peabody Award. He has also taught journalism and non-fiction writing at Boston University, The University of the South, Denison University, and Furman University. Teaching & speaking
Neil is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, recently including one from the Pulitzer Center for his work on the decline of Arctic caribou. In 2022 he was the John D. And Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation resident at Yaddo. In 2021 he was a storyteller-in-residence at Denison University.
Neil lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Taylor Hom, and their three children.
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Instagram: @neilshea13
Substack: Don’t Save Anything
Literary Agent: Susan Canavan susan@wlabooks.com