Born in California, Paul Salopek crossed his first border at age six when his family moved to central Mexico, where he later worked as a rancher and cowhand. For years he made his living as a commercial fisherman. As a foreign correspondent, he has reported on conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Latin America, as well as on global topics such as oil production, overfishing, and the human genome.

His stories, including those collected below, have appeared in National Geographic, the Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The American Scholar, The Best American Travel Writing and other publications. His reportage has earned many awards in the United States, including two Pulitzer Prizes; the George Polk Award; the National Press Club Award; the Overseas Press Club Award; the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage in Journalism; the Lovejoy Award for defending press freedom; a Princeton Ferris-McGraw Fellowship; and a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard.

Paul holds a B.A. in environmental biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Paul Salopek, Out of Eden Walk | Email: paul@outofedenwalk.com | Twitter: @PaulSalopek