http://www.natureaustralia.org.au/about/nature-writing-prize-2017/
Nature Writing Prize 2017
Calling all writers! The Nature Conservancy is delighted to announce the fourth biennial Nature Writing Prize.
Review the terms and conditions and submit your essay here.
The $5,000 award is for an essay between 3,000 and 5,000 words in the genre of ‘Writing of Place’. The prize will go to an Australian writer whose entry is judged to be of the highest literary merit and which best explores his or her relationship and interaction with some aspect of the Australian landscape. The competition’s judges are award-winning journalist, author and editor Jo Chandler and novelist and critic James Bradley. The winning entry will be published in Griffith Review online as a multimedia essay.
The prize is made possible thanks to a generous donation from the McLean Foundation, which promotes and celebrates the art of nature writing in Australia.
“The very long-lived and sustaining connections between human culture and the non-human world are in a state of disrepair. The work of repairing these connections begins with a loving scrutiny of the arrangements that have given rise in our time to ocean acidification, failing reserves of fresh water, loss of diversity in Earth’s biological communities, and global climate change. The goal here is to discover a state of harmony that will ensure the flourishing of all forms of life. Nature writing is a crucial part of this process of discovery, of inquiring into the ways in which modern humans can place themselves again in good relations with all that lives around them.”
Barry Lopez, Nature writer, author, essayist
Annamaria Weldon won the inaugural prize for her piece ‘Threshold Country,’ which the judges described as “a marvelously orchestrated, complex meditation on belonging. It is at once assured and yet gently voiced.”
The second biennial prize was awarded to Stephen Wright for his essay ‘Bunyip’ which explored the culture and fate of Indigenous communities and early European settlers as they navigated the landscape of south-east Queensland.
Victorian author Nick Gadd won the third biennial prize for his essay ‘A landscape of stories’ – a reflection on walking through the industrial landscapes of Melbourne and the fresh ways of seeing an unplanned or unfamiliar route can create.
The deadline for submissions between 3,000 and 5,000 words is January 27, 2017 and the winner will be announced in May 2017. The prize is open to Australian citizens and permanent residents. Participants will need to pay an entry fee of $30.
Read the Terms and Conditions
Enter The Nature Conservancy Australia Nature Writing Prize
Or email us HERE for any queries.
Australian Competitions Club
