Kira Salak has won the PEN award for journalism and appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. She is a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure magazine and was the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea; Four Corners, her nonfiction account of that trip, was a New York Times Notable Travel Book of 2001. She has a Ph.D. in English and her fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices and other publications. Her nonfiction has appeared in such publications as National Geographic, Travel & Leisure, Best Women's Travel Writing, and The New York Times Magazine.