Jennifer Hawks was born in New York City. She received her Bachelor of Literature degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She later lived for many years in Colorado before moving to a remote location in the Yukon Territory where she earned her private pilot's license.

A full-time freelance writer, Ms. Hawks is also working on Anywhere But Down, her memoir about moving alone from a major American city to a remote Yukon cabin and getting her pilot's license. As she kayaks, hunts, and fishes in some of the world's last remaining wild places, she comes to know her neighbors: the mountain men, bears, and other wildlife of Canada's Far North.

In her spare time, she flies in pursuit of a commercial pilot's license.

Ms. Hawks is a Fellow of the Conservation Science Institute.