Iris Gottlieb Books in Order

Iris Gottlieb is an illustrator, author, and animator whose books turn questions that can feel big, awkward, or technical into pages readers can explore at their own pace. Based in Oakland, California, Gottlieb works across books, editorial illustration, museum projects, and public-facing visual storytelling.

Gottlieb is originally from Durham, North Carolina, and has said that collecting dead and living things was part of growing up. That early habit of looking closely matters in the work. Small curiosities, from animal behavior to tides, often become an excuse to ask a larger question.

After earning a 2012 degree in studio art, with a minor in environmental studies, at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Gottlieb began working as an illustrator and author in 2013. The route into books grew from notebooks full of childhood questions about the natural world and a wish to visualize the answers.

Art was not added after the research, it was the way Gottlieb made the research easier to enter.

Natural Attraction came first in 2017, pairing watercolor art and clear, funny notes about symbiotic animal relationships. It looks at creatures that cooperate, compete, freeload, or otherwise get on each other’s nerves, using familiar relationship language without losing the science. Readers who like facts with a little oddness will recognize the pattern that runs through much of Gottlieb’s work.

In Seeing Science, Gottlieb moves from the tiny to the enormous, taking on topics such as the human heart, neap tides, whale falls, and string theory. Visual comparisons do much of the teaching. The goal isn't to make readers feel tested, but to give them a solid first handle on a subject and leave room for more questions.

That same mix of research, illustration, and personal context shapes Seeing Gender. The book looks at identity and expression through history, science, sociology, terminology, and Gottlieb’s own experience. It is designed for readers who want a usable starting point for conversations around gender, while recognizing that people arrive with different backgrounds and questions.

Curiosity is the through line, along with a willingness to make serious information less stiff.

Gottlieb also illustrates books written by other people. In Who Gives a Poop?, written by Heather L. Montgomery, the drawings accompany an investigation into what feces can reveal about animals, ecosystems, medicine, and waste. Beyond publishing, Gottlieb has worked with places including science centers and museums, creating images that explain complex material for visitors who may not think of themselves as science people.

Today, Gottlieb’s work continues to range from authored books to design and illustration projects. A current role includes graphic design work on a seafood-sustainability feasibility study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Across the projects, the approach stays practical: start with a real question, draw it clearly, and make room for the reader's curiosity.