Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of  “Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World,” a current campus read selection and winner of the University of Pennsylvania Library’s 2025 Sustainability Prize. His latest book introduces innovators, grassroots leaders and everyday heroes who show us that our choices matter and how small changes add up. 

Ed spends months embedded in the lives of his subjects to research stories about the justice system, science, nature, and sustainability. His seventeen books include the bestseller Mississippi Mud and the PEN Award–winning No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court. 

He lives in Santa Barbara and has taught narrative nonfiction writing at USC and Chapman University.