Kim Todd investigates the stories of 16 exotic species, from those brought by the first European colonists to species still being imported today, as described in her book, *Tinkering with Eden*, winner of the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Starlings. Honeybees. Pigeons. Brown trout. All these non-native species are well established parts of the American landscape, but how did they get here? What impact do they have? Who wanted them here and why?
Kim Todd's first book, *Tinkering with Eden, a Natural History of Exotics in America*, tells the stories of non-native species and how they arrived in the United States. *Tinkering with Eden* received the PEN/Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as one of *Booklist'*s Top Ten Science/Technical Books for 2001. Her second book, *Chrysalis*, *Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis* looks at the life of a pioneering explorer/naturalist who traveled to South America in 1699 to study insect metamorphosis. The story also traces ideas about metamorphosis through time. Chrysalis was published by Harcourt in 2007. It was selected as a Montana Book Award honor book, as one of the best science/technical books of 2007 by the Library Journal, and as a "Book to Remember" from 2007 by the New York Public Library. Her articles and essays have appeared in *Orion*, *Sierra Magazine*, *California Wild* and *Grist*, among other places. She has taught environmental and nature writing at the University of Montana, the University of California at Santa Cruz extension, and the Environmental Writers Institute. She currently teaches at Penn State, The Behrend College. Todd is a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program. She has an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and an M.S. in environmental studies, both from the University of Montana, and B.A. in English from Yale.