Rachel Dickinson

I write about science, nature, environmental issues, birds and birding, and travel from perpetually overcast central New York state. Past and present clients include The Atlantic, Perceptive Travel, Smithsonian, Audubon, Wildlife Conservation, AmericanStyle, National Geographic Traveler, Cooking Light, Islands Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Sweet Tea Journal, Executive Traveler, Yankee Magazine, History Channel Magazine, American Archaeology, and Living Bird.

My new narrative nonfiction book will be published March 2017 by Lyons Press. In The Notorious Reno Gang I follow the world's first train robbers -- the Reno Brothers -- and their gang of counterfieters and robbers as they gallop their way through four midwestern states in the 1860s. What emerges is a twisted tale of theives, Pinkertons, and vigilantes.

My first narrative nonfiction work for adults -- Falconer on the Edge: A man, his birds, and the vanishing landscape of the American West  (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009).

I'm also the author of several nonfiction books for middle-school aged children published by Nomad Press: Tools of the Ancient Romans; Tools of Navigation; and Great Pioneer ProjectsYou Can Build Yourself.

Read the fun blog I do with my friend Jenna Schnuer  at www.thehaikudiaries.wordpress.com.  It's a daily diary in haiku form. 

Part of an interview with Lisa White, Houghton Mifflin editor

BIRDING Magazine, May-June 2008 

BIRDING: Would you give us a sneak peek into some upcoming projects? For instance, Rachel Dickinson’s forthcoming book about falconry?

LW: Nearly every proposal I get for a narrative book includes a comparison to The Orchid Thief. No wonder, with the success of the book and the movie adaptation, called Adaptation. Rachel’s book, about a quirky protagonist who is consumed with a passion and who is perhaps representative of his subculture, comes closer than anything else I’ve seen. She’s got a great writing style, and it should appeal to an audience beyond falconers and even beyond birders.