Jack Nisbet is a teacher, naturalist, and writer who lives in Spokane with his wife and two children.

In 1994 he published Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson across Western North America, which was awarded the Murray Morgan History Prize. Since then, Nisbet has published Purple Flat Top (1997), Singing Grass, Burning Sage (1999), and Visible Bones (2003), all of which explore the interplay of human and natural history in the greater Northwest. The Seattle Times and the Washington State Center for the Book named Visible Bones as one of their best nonfiction titles of 2003.

Nisbet’s current project is an illustrated book titled The Mapmakers Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau. It examines the period of contact in the region through written and oral history, early artwork, and David Thompson’s voluminous maps. “It reminds me of winters long ago, sitting around in the dark,” says Coeur d’Alene elder Cliff SiJohn. “That’s when we would listen to my grandmother tell all the good stories.”

VISIBLE BONES: The Natural and Human Forces that Transformed the West (Sasquatch Books, 2004).
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SINGING GRASS, BURNING SAGE: Discovering Washington's Shrub-Steppe (The Nature Conservancy, 2000).  
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PURPLE FLAT TOP: In Pursuit of a Place (Sasquatch Books, 1996).
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SOURCES OF THE RIVER: Tracking David Thompson Through the Inland Northwest (Sasquatch Books, 1994).
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