About Burkhard Bilger
Burkhard Bilger has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2001 and a contributor since 2000. His articles have focused on food, science, and American subcultures, and have included essays on gem dealing in Madagascar and the enigma of American stature (why are we smaller than Europeans?), as well as portraits of short-order cooks, ginseng poachers, Christian detectives, and a cheese-making nun. Bilger’s work has also appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, and numerous other publications, and has been anthologized in “The Best American Science and Nature Writing ,” “Best Food Writing,” and “The Best American Sports Writing.”
Bilger was a senior editor at Discover from 1999 to 2005. Before that, he worked as a writer and deputy editor for The Sciences, where his work helped earn two National Magazine Awards and six nominations. In 2000, Bilger published his first book, “Noodling for Flatheads: Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and Other Southern Comforts,” which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. He graduated from Yale College, where he was in Branford, in 1986.