Bruce Barcott, a former Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction, is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, The Atlantic Monthly, Outside magazine, and many other publications. The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, his critically praised true story of a woman fighting a global corporation and a corrupt government to save the world's most beautiful bird, was reviewed on the front cover The New York Times Book Review, and has been adopted as a "One Book" choice by a number of cities and colleges across the United States. His previous book, The Measure of a Mountain, earned the Washington State Governor's Award.

He lives on an island near Seattle with his wife, the memoirist Claire Dederer, and their two children.