Elizabeth Rush

Elizabeth Rush is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of English at Brown University, specializing in creative nonfiction and environmental literature. She teaches creative nonfiction and has authored acclaimed books such as The Quickening: Motherhood, Antarctica and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World and Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her work explores climate change impacts on communities and ecosystems, blending scientific inquiry with personal narrative.

She holds a B.A. in English from Reed College (2006) and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University (2010). Rush has conducted fieldwork in Antarctica, focusing on Thwaites Glacier’s environmental significance, and contributed to publications like The Atlantic, Orion, and Harpers. Her research spans climate adaptation, frontline communities, and environmental storytelling.

Rush has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Science Foundation, National Geographic, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She advocates for equitable resource management and resilient futures, emphasizing collective action in the face of ecological crises. Her teaching and writing bridge academic rigor with public engagement, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on environmental justice and planetary stewardship.