Earl Swift began writing for a living in his teens. In the years since, the Virginia-based journalist has penned seven books and hundreds of major features for newspapers and magazines, and has earned a reputation for fast-moving narrative and scrupulous reporting. His editors have nominated his work for the National Book Award, the National Magazine Award, and six times for a Pulitzer Prize.
A former Fulbright fellow in New Zealand, Swift is currently a residential fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He has a 24-year-old daughter, Saylor, and is engaged to the fetching and free-spirited Amy Walton of Virginia Beach.
Swift is author of Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island. Chesapeake Requiem takes an intimate look at the island’s past, present, and tenuous future, and sounds a warning on the coming fate of countless coastal communities.