Elizabeth Royte is an American science/nature writer. She is best known for her books Garbage Land, The Tapir's Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest, and Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It. Royte's articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, National Geographic, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Nation, Outside, Smithsonian, and other magazines. Her work has been featured in the Best American Science Writing 2004 and the "Best American Science Writing 2009." Royte is a former Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow and a recipient of Bard College's John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service. Her article about women who survived the genocide in Rwanda attracted a good deal of attention. She has traveled throughout the world to research her articles and books. Royte won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1990 to research and write about life at a biological research station in the tropics. Royte began her career as an intern at The Nation. She did freelance copy editing and writing for other magazines.