Before becoming a professor of creative writing, James Barilla held a variety of posts in the environmental field, crossing paths with wolves and mountain lions in remote wilderness and promoting “mini-beast” habitat in urban schoolyards in England. These different visions of what it means to be human in the natural world continue to inspire his work. His work has appeared in print or online in The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic and Conservation as well as numerous other publications, and he has appeared on a variety of national public radio shows such as WHYY's Radio Times and PRI's Living on Earth. James now teaches creative nonfiction and environmental literature in the MFA program at the University of South Carolina, where he directs the Fall Festival of Authors. A graduate of Macalester College, he earned a PhD in English from the University of California, Davis, and an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana.