Robert Macfarlane is an internationally acclaimed writer whose work explores nature, people, and place. His bestselling books—Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places, and Mountains of the Mind—have been translated into more than thirty languages, earning numerous global awards and widespread adaptation across film, music, theatre, radio, and dance. He also penned the book-length prose poem Ness and has written operas, plays, and films, including River and Mountain, both narrated by Willem Dafoe.

Macfarlane has collaborated closely with artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood. With Jackie Morris, he co-created the internationally bestselling nature-poetry and art books The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. His latest work, Is a River Alive?, was published in May 2025.

Beyond literature, he is a lyricist and performer, having written albums and songs with musicians including Cosmo Sheldrake, Julie Fowlis, and Johnny Flynn—releasing two albums, Lost in the Cedar Wood and The Moon Also Rises. In 2017, he received the E.M. Forster Prize for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2023, he became the inaugural recipient of the Weston International Award for nonfiction. Macfarlane is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

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