Julia Whitty is an Australian-American documentary filmmaker, environmental journalist, author, and adventurer. Born in Bogotá, Colombia to a Tasmanian father and South Asian mother, her family immigrated to the United States in her early childhood. She is known for her extensive career in nature documentaries, her three award-winning books on the natural world, and her years as environmental correspondent for Mother Jones magazine.
Ursula K. LeGuin called her writing "wonderfully various, unpredictable, and subversive"
Career
Filmmaking Whitty spent over two decades writing, producing, photographing, and editing more than 70 nature documentaries, including two 26-part series. Specializing in underwater cinematography, her films have aired globally on major networks including PBS, The Discovery Channel., and National Geographic
Journalism and writing Whitty transitioned into print media, writing both fiction and nonfiction, contributing articles, essays, and short stories to publications such as Harper's, The Paris Review, the New York Times, Grist, Zoetrope: All-Story, and others. For nearly a decade, she served as the Environmental Correspondent for Mother Jones magazine, where she specialized in long-form journalism, with over 1000 articles and blog posts, focusing on biodiversity loss, population issues, and the climate crisis.
Awards and honors A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga (2003): O. Henry Award National Magazine Awards finalist (1999) PEN/Hemingway Award runnerup The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific: John Burroughs Medal Kiriyama Prize PEN USA Award, and others (2008) Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2008) Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean Orion Book Award Washington Post Best of Nonfiction Book 2010 Awards for environmental reporting John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism ProjectCensored Society of Environmental Journalists, Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award
Bibliography
A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga: Short Stories (2002) The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific (2007) Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean (2010) The Thirteenth Tipping Pointhttps://www.motherjones.com/environment/2006/11/thirteenth-tipping-point/ (2007) Undersea by Rachel Carson (2013) – collectible art printing with woodblocks and afterword by Julia Whitty
References