Francesca Lyman

Francesca Lyman is a Seattle-based investigative journalist and author who writes for magazines and newspapers.

The journals of the scientists, artists, and filmmakers on expedition to a remote rain forest in Central Africa, home to Baka pygmies, gorillas, elephants and 200 foot trees.

The hospital where I worked would become the scene of the first known death from coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States, along with dozens more deaths, in coming days, here, and at other feeder hospitals from rehab centers holding sick and largely elderly patients around the region. What had seemed like a faraway threat across the Pacific Ocean mushroomed quickly across the United States.

This story is co-published with Salon
ATLANTA – On a sunny afternoon before Halloween, shoppers at Value Village Atlanta cruise the aisles, browsing for bargains. They hope to find a beaded gown befitting a Bride of Dracula or a fringed Elvis jumpsuit.
Billed as a “Treasure Hunter’s Paradise,” the popular thrift store sits in the corner of the old Moreland Shopping Center. A sandwich board solicits donations to the American Kidney Fund, along with more signage for the charity in the windows.
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Book on global warming--Penguin Books

Francesca Lyman is a journalist and author of such books as The Greenhouse Trap: What We're Doing to the Atmosphere and How We Can Slow Global Warming, with World Resources Institute; and a children's...

Within the last decade, state regulators across the country have accused many for-profit secondhand stores of masquerading as charities, using deceptive tactics through advertising, telemarketers, pickup services, donation bins, and dubious charity alliances. In some cases, even minimum-wage salespeople have been caught misleading the consumer in person, perhaps unintentionally.
An upsurge in public complaints about potential consumer deception by for-profit thrift stores led the Minnesota At...

By Francesca Lyman/InvestigateWest
Charities like Goodwill and Salvation Army have traditionally dominated the $10 billion nonprofit thrift-store industry, but they face competition from a growing number of for-profit companies.
Even with shopping malls and brick and mortar retail stores rapidly going out of business, America’s retail scene is seeing fast growth of secondhand stores, especially the for-profit kind that are part of a $19.8 billion used goods industry.
“Demand has never been hi...

Self-Published (paperback), $16.95
Reviewed by Francesca Lyman
A longtime environmental activist finds lessons for the present in this stirring-yet-entertaining memoir by Byron Kennard, author of the 1982 book, “Nothing Can be Done, Everything is Possible,” which explored the limits and possibilities of community organizing to protect the environment.
In this latest book, Kennard changes his tune somewhat, pointing to the power of media and the arts as having a creative hand in promoting the ...

But in recent weeks, shoppers from all around Seattle and the Puget Sound have returned here to say goodbye to the beloved landmark, which has hosted hundreds of festivals and events, including a seasonal local farmers market for the past 14 years. For nearly 40 years, Country Village has been an artisan center with specialty shops featuring everything from porcelain dolls to wood-crafted birdcages, custom knives and hand-lathed pens.
“These quaint streets and shops amid countryside — there’s...

The Arlene award for articles 'making a difference,' one of ASJA's Annual Writing Awards

An early commentary on the promise and perils of genetically engineered products.