Helen Sullivan
Writing
Hello! I'm Helen. I've reported from Lebanon, South Africa, Australia and the Federated States of Micronesia for the New Yorker, London Review of Books, New York Times and the Guardian, where I am a reporter on the foreign desk and write a very serious fortnightly column about insects and animals called 'The Nature of...'.
I am currently writing a book called Freak of Nature for Scribner / Simon & Schuster Australia. I am represented by the Wylie Agency in London. You can read some of my writing below.
_edited.jpg)
The New Yorker
A Syrian Seed Bank’s Fight to Survive (Anthologised in The Best Australian Science Writing 2022; Runner-up for the Bragg Prize for Science Writing)
The Making of Lebanon’s October Revolution
A Tiny Coral Paradise in the Great Barrier Reef Reckons with Climate Change (Anthologised in The Best Australian Science Writing 2019; Nominated for Bragg Prize for Science Writing, 2019).
London Review Of Books
The Guardian
Column
The Nature of: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/the-nature-of
A Stingray; A Swan; The Moon; A Snail; A Cuckoo; A Christmas Beetle; An Oyster; An Elephant Seal; A Dragonfly; A Megabat; A Bee; A baboon ; A Praying Mantis; A Scottish Highland Cow; A Singing Fish; A Donkey; A Glow-worm; A Daddy Longlegs ; A Komodo Dragon; An African Painted Dog ; A Hummingbird Moth; A Narwhal; A Norwegian Lemming
Features
‘China’s hottest woman’: the driving force behind crunchy chilli sensation Lao Gan Ma
Elsa Majimbo, the crisp-eating, straight-talking star of Kenya's Covid-19 lockdown
‘The Aussie scene is killing it’: Meet Erika Reid, Australian wrestling’s ‘dreamtime voodoo witch’
Nomcebo, the voice behind Jerusalema, South Africa's global hit
Opinion, reviews and culture:
Collected Stories by Shirley Hazzard
In the months my husband and I were apart, the world changed completely
What I learned from breaking my foot during a pandemic
She never forgot the fight. I never forgot the boots: my sister found an heirloom we thought was gone forever
Australia’s best beaches: Flat Rock, Bondi
How I fell in love with Badedas
The film Moonstruck
Braidwood celebrates bushranger past with replay of Clarke gang's capture
The New York Times
Australia’s Fire Season Ends, and Researchers Look to the Next One
Can the world’s strangest mammal survive? (front page, New York Times international edition; also published in The Seattle Times)
Some of Australia’s Smallest Species Could Be Lost to Wildfires (also published in The Independent and Seattle Times)
Lebanon, where eagle feathers fall like snow (front page, science section; also published in The Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune; and translated into Spanish)
In Lebanon, the Hyena’s Main Fear Is Fear Itself (front page, New York Times international edition; also published in The Independent)
Behold Mortichnia, the Death Trail of an Ancient Worm
The Monthly
The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age: Book Reviews
Michael McGirr: Books that Saved My Life
Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered
The Biographer’s Lover by Ruby J. Murray
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart: Holly Ringland's Dark Fairytale
Luke Slattery's 'imagined history' of the Macquaries
A Sea-Chase Review: Roger McDonald Takes to the Ocean in Search of Meaning
Hell or High Water: Sofie Laguna's The Choke