Neil is a writer based in Brooklyn.
For 20 years he’s written for National Geographic, reporting around the world at the intersections of conflict, climate science, and cultural change. Recently his work has focused on the incredible transformations unfolding in the Arctic, and his first book, Frostlines, gathers his storytelling into a narrative journey around the top of the world. Frostlines will be published in December 2025 by Ecco.
Neil is a contributing editor with the Virginia Quarterly Review, and The American Scholar, and he also writes for the science blog The Last Word on Nothing, and his own Substack newsletter, Don’t Save Anything. Between 2006 and 2015, he covered conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kurdistan.
Beyond magazines and the web, he works in film, television, and audio. His investigative podcast, “Unfinished: Deep South,” was one of The Atlantic’s best pods of the year in 2020. He also teaches journalism and non-fiction writing, and has worked at Boston University, The University of the South, Denison University, and Furman University.
Neil’s storytelling has received numerous awards, nominations and grants. He is recently the recipient for a grant from the Pulitzer Center for his work on the decline of Arctic caribou, and in 2022 he was the John D. And Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation resident at Yaddo. His podcast, “Deep South,” was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2021.
Neil lives with his partner, the filmmaker Taylor Hom, and their children.
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Instagram: @neilshea13
Substack: Don’t Save Anything
Literary Agent: Susan Canavan susan@wlabooks.com