Suzanne Hurt is an award-winning journalist who has written about everything from crooked Chicago politicians to boxcar tramps. Now she gets amped capturing the rush of untamed wilderness and discovering fabulous destinations.

She earned a master’s in literary nonfiction from the University of Oregon and a bachelor’s in news/editorial journalism from Northern Illinois University. She has worked as a staff reporter at a Chicago wire service and daily newspapers in California and Oregon.

While working for Chicago’s legendary City News Bureau, Suzanne learned never to let natural or man-made disasters get between her and a story. She covered dangerous breaking news when natural gas explosions rocked a Chicago neighborhood, killing three people and damaging or destroying 17 buildings. She was at the scene when three cops were shot in the South Side’s deadliest neighborhood. She drove toward a tornado disaster while broadcasters warned people to seek shelter. And when a politician’s giant bodyguard pushed her out of a horde of journalists on his boss’s heels, she shoved right back.

Suzanne is into rock climbing, diving, backpacking and other sports. She has explored Borneo, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii and the United States. Suzanne has gone searching for freshwater dolphins in the Mekong River, diving with sharks off Borneo and swimming with sea snakes off Thailand. She climbed Monkey Face at Oregon’s Smith Rock and ascended the little-used eastern summit of Mt. Kinabalu on Borneo. She survived 10 days of mosquitoes canoeing in Quetico’s Boundary Waters and 10 hours in the saddle in the High Sierra.

She was born in San Francisco and lived in Chicago before returning to the West Coast. The move gave her a chance to combine her passion for journalism with her craving for adventure. Suzanne now freelances from a base in Sacramento. She specializes in adventure, travel, nature and narrative storytelling. Her stories have appeared in Rock & Ice, Climbing, Dandelion, Mammoth Monthly, High Mountain Sports, The Chicago Tribune, The Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, Forest Magazine and Mercator’s World, and on Capital Public Radio, among others.

901 28th Street . Sacramento, CA . 95816
916-492-0331 . suzanne@wildjournalism.com