Libby B Bushell is an author and wildlife guide, specializing in the Coastal Alaskan Brown Bear and the Emperor Penguin of Antarctica. She writes a biweekly column: Dispatch from Katmai, for the Homer Independent Press. Read Dispatch from Katmai here.
Libby B’s essay, “Homage to a Halibut Eye” won the international Moth Nature Writing Prize in 2023, published in the Irish Times. Her recent essay, “Antarctic Hope” is featured in issue 167 of Backcountry Magazine, published in March, 2026. Read “The Augustine Dream,” published in issue 161 of Backcountry.
Libby is the founder of HoWL, a wilderness expedition camp for kids based out of Homer, Alaska. She currently serves on HoWL’s board of directors.
Her first novel, Salty, is about a woman on the brink of a complete psychological collapse, set amidst the catastrophic recession of Alaska’s glaciers in the early 21st century. Heartbroken and disillusioned, Cat Wilder is desperately swiping on the dating apps until she matches with a serial killer on Tinder. On a precarious expedition through the mountains of Alaska, Wyoming and British Columbia, Cat confronts the Tinder Killer as well as her own demons in this wild and deeply-felt contemporary novel. Salty explores themes of wilderness & technology, privilege & identity, feminism & the patriarchy, grief, trauma, love and family. The world is madness, and so is Salty.
Salty is currently out for query.
Libby is presently working on her second novel about a girl who was raised by bears.
-September, 2026