The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025

Susan Orlean—the beloved New Yorker staff writer and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Rin Tin Tin, The Orchid Thief, and On Animals—selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in 2024.

The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected—and most popular—of its kind.

New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean selects twenty pieces that represent the best science and nature writing published the previous year and explores our ever-changing world.

“The best science and nature writing—which these stories represent—reminds us of the wide world and our connection to it, and the multitude of ways we make our place in it,” writes Susan Orlean in her introduction. This year’s collection masterfully guides us through exotic locations and groundbreaking research, leading us to consider complex and utterly fascinating questions about the world. How does it feel to camp in one of the hottest places on Earth? Is the ability to recognize and remember faces a sign of intelligence? What does it mean for a species to be wild or invasive—are city pigeons and rats less deserving than the coyotes that recently wandered down from Westchester? Encompassing the strangeness and, at times, severity of our world, these stories are urgent, vital, and ultimately inspiring. As Orlean eloquently observes, “Science keeps unlocking mysteries, revealing secrets, helping us heal. And as imperiled as nature seems, it remains amply, gloriously gorgeous: The world is still full of beauty.”THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2025 INCLUDES: FERRIS JABR • EMILY RABOTEAU • RIVKA GALCHEN • BEN GOLDFARB • DAVID NAIMON • TOM MCALLISTER • KATIE ENGELHART • AND OTHERS

• | Author: Jaime Green, Susan Orlean
• | Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• | Publication Date: Dec 04, 2025
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• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9780063414211
• | ISBN-10: 006341421X