Jan DeBlieu is the author of four books and dozens of articles and essays about people and nature. Her first book, Hatteras Journal (Fulcrum, 1987), is considered an Outer Banks classic. Meant to Be Wild (Fulcrum, 1991) was chosen as one of the best science books of the year by Library Journal. Wind (Houghton Mifflin, 1998; Shoemaker & Hoard, 2006) won the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing, the highest national award given for a volume of nature writing. Year of the Comets: A Journey from Sadness to the Stars was published by Shoemaker & Hoard in cloth in spring 2005 and in paper in fall 2006. It received national acclaim and was excerpted in The Washington Post. All of Jan’s books remain in print.

Most of Jan’s work explores the subtle ways we are shaped by the landscapes where we live and work. She has contributed to many national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Audubon, and Orion.

In the spring of 2003 Jan opened an Outer Banks office for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, a grassroots environmental group that works to protect coastal waters from pollution. A longtime environmental activist, in the late 1980s she helped form a group that successfully kept oil companies from drilling off the Outer Banks.