Priyanka Kumar is the award-winning author of the “landmark book” (Psychology Today) CONVERSATIONS WITH BIRDS (Milkweed Editions), THE LIGHT BETWEEN APPLE TREES (Island Press/Princeton University Press), in which she originated the concept of the Microwild, and THE GRASSLAND QUEEN (Princeton University Press), which has been called “nature writing at its best.” (Joan E. Strassmann, author of Slow Birding and Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology, Washington University in St Louis)

Kumar’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Orion, and Sierra. Her work has been featured on CBS News Radio, NPR, and Oprah Daily.

An internationally acclaimed naturalist and filmmaker, she has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Southern California and serves on the Advisory Council of the Leopold Writing Program.

She wrote, directed and produced the feature documentary, THE SONG OF THE LITTLE ROAD, starring Martin Scorsese and Ravi Shankar—which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, was distributed nationally, and is in the permanent collection of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Her awards include a Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies Fellowship, a New Mexico/New Visions Governor’s Award, an Aldo Leopold Residency, an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Fellowship, a Canada Council for the Arts Grant, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award for Science Writing.

She serves on the board of New Mexico Writers and teaches at the University of New Mexico.