About

Nevin Martell is a D.C.-area based food and travel writer, parenting essayist, recipe developer, and photographer who has been published by The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Boston Globe, USA Today, Bloomberg, BBC, The Daily Beast, AARP, Men’s Journal, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, Runner’s World, Michelin Guide, Plate, Washingtonian, Washington City Paper, and many other publications.

He is the author of eight books, including "Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery," "The Founding Farmers Cookbook: 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink," "It’s So Good: 100 Real Food Recipes for Kids," the travelogue-memoir "Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations," and the small-press smash "Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip."

He has appeared on the hit Netflix show "Somebody Feed Phil," NPR, "The Frommer’s Travel Show," Expedia’s "Out Travel the System," "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," "Bookman’s Corner," "Chatter On Books," and "The Moveable Feast," plus starred in a beer commercial for D.C.'s Right Proper Brewing Company. Additionally, he is the co-founder of the highly successful New Kitchens On The Block event series and the internationally acclaimed Pay It Furloughed initiative.

He holds a master’s from The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a bachelor’s from Vassar College.

Featured Work

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip

2010
Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

For ten years, Calvin and Hobbes was one the world's most beloved comic strips. And then, on the last day of 1995, the strip ended. Its mercurial and reclusive creator, Bill Watterson, not only finished the strip but withdrew entirely from public life. In Looking for Calvin and Hobbes, Nevin Martell sets out on a very personal odyssey to understand the life and career of the intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes. Martell talks to a wide range of artists and writers (including Dave Barry, Harvey Pekar, and Brad Bird) as well as some of Watterson's closest friends and professional colleagues, and along the way reflects upon the nature of his own fandom and on the extraordinary legacy that Watterson left behind. This is as close as we're ever likely to get to one of America's most ingenious and intriguing figures - and it's the fascinating story of an intrepid author's search for him, too.

Other Works

  • The Founding Farmers Cookbook, Third Edition: 100 Recipes from the Restaurant Owned by American Family Farmers

    2024

  • Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America's Favorite Rural Bakery

    2018

  • Freak Show Without A Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji, and Other Family Vacations

    2014