Elizabeth Rush grew up 75 miles outside of Jacob’s Point, Rhode Island. Despite her proximity to the sea, she only became interested in sea level rise while writing a magazine article about the completion of the longest border fence in the world between India and Bangladesh. Since this first dispatch, she has immersed herself in exploring how humans, especially those from marginalized and impoverished communities, are adapting to changing climates. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, Granta, Guernica, Creative Nonfiction, and Orion. Rush is the recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships, including from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, National Geographic, the Society for Environmental Journalism, the National Society of Science Writers, and the National Science Foundation. She currently teaches at Brown University. Rising won the National Outdoor Book Award, was named a Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2018 and the Library Journal Best Book of 2018, and was a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.

Chris Brunet is a member of the Choctaw community from Isle de Jean Charles whose decision to leave the island is documented in Rising. His family has called the island home for nearly 200 years, and like other residents, he found the decision to leave the island an extremely difficult one to make.