About

katherine harmon courage author photo

Katherine Harmon Courage is an award-winning freelance journalist, editor, and author.

She is a contributor to Vox and Scientific American and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, Smithsonian Magazine, Gourmet, Popular Science, Prevention, ESPN The Magazine, as well as numerous websites including NPR.org, KnowableMagazine.org, QuantaMagazine.org, NationalGeographic.com, BBCEarth.com, Time.com, Oprah.com, FastCompany.com, Nature.com and others. Her work ranges from breaking science news to features about food, and this year she has extensively covered the coronavirus pandemic, including public health and policy. And she has also dabbled in podcasts and video along the way. Prior to becoming an independent journalist, she worked as a reporter and editor at Scientific American. She currently also edits science news and features for Vox.

Her second book, Cultured: How Ancient Foods Can Feed Our Microbiome is out now from Penguin Random House. She is also the author of Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea. And her work was featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013.

  • Cultured book cover
  • octopus book

Courage has been a Media Fellow at Harvard University Medical School, a National Institutes of Health Medicine in the Media Fellow at Dartmouth College, and a Health Journalism Fellow at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work has received a Mark of Excellence for In-Depth Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, National Finalist commendation for Outstanding Student Reporting from the Society of Environmental Journalists, and Best Story about the Outdoors award from the Missouri Press Association.

She has spoken across the U.S. and abroad and appeared on national and international radio, television, and podcasts.

She lives in Longmont, Colorado. In her spare time, she runs marathons and competes in triathlons–and is turning her yard into a fruit and vegetable garden. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a bachelor’s in English from Vassar College.

Follow her on Twitter at @KHCourage and on Facebook for more about health, science, microbes, and, of course, octopuses.