SELC's Reed Environmental Writing Award

SELC’s Reed Environmental Writing Award Championing Conservation Through Nature Writing

BILL LEA

There is a long, proud heritage of writers who have celebrated the South’s exceptional beauty and sense of place. Today, an increasing number of southern writers continue this tradition but are also highlighting the serious environmental challenges facing this region, including the explosive, unprecedented growth that is predicted over the next 20 years. Writers are using their talents to give voice to the hundreds of special southern places that are endangered, from the mountains to the coast. The Southern Environmental Law Center has given an annual award for exceptional nature writing since 1994. The Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment honors those who use words on a page to capture the beauty, the way of life, and the special character of the South. (See inside.) Awakening people to the changes around them Conservation is a core value that is widely shared. But many people see the world around them changing so fast that they feel powerless to do anything about it. Through law and policy advocacy, SELC serves as an effective agent for individuals who want to protect what is special about this region. Through our Reed Award, SELC not only recog- nizes and encourages powerful environmental writing, it also spreads the word that there are lots of people who care about these issues, and there is reason for hope. Can nature writing awaken people to the changes around them? Charles Seabrook, retired environment writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 1998 winner of the Reed Award and several other conservation and journalism honors, believes it can. He receives frequent calls from readers saying they hear chain saws and bulldozers from nearby development. “They want help,” he says. “People get fired up about the environment when it affects them in their own backyards.” CHARLES SHOFFNER Dorinda Dallmeyer, an environmental ethicist at the University of Georgia, agrees. “People are finding their living environment less and less tolerable. The current generation is becoming more concerned about their role in nature and interrelationship with it.” Using art to protect the southern landscape When SELC was founded in the 1980s, many southern writers had yet to apply their art to explorations of the region’s environment. Says Janisse Ray, Reed Award winner and a leader in the southern nature writing movement: “Western writers were so moved by their landscape that they were putting pen to paper to defend it. I saw that was exactly what we needed to do in the South—to use our art to better protect the landscape.” Twenty years later, southern writers are doing just that. “Today, nature writers are taking a central place in the canon of southern literature,” says Ray. H. Emerson Blake, editor-in-chief of the renowned Orion magazine, sees the continued importance of address- ing the under-representation of the South in American nature writing. “To my mind this further underscores the value of the Reed Award and the need to support and draw attention to

BILL LEA the good writing about the environment of the South that is happening.” And the readership for this genre is growing. Lawrence Earley (Reed Award 2005), former editor of Wildlife in North Carolina, observes, “Every book- store has a nature section or an environmental studies section now—a testimony to how interested the public is in these topics.” John Lane (Reed Award 2001) sums it up: “It’s imperative we continue to celebrate the best of southern environmental writing. The environmental movement should be the empowering and transformative force in the South today, as the civil rights movement was in the 1960s.”

03/09 SELC Brings Advocacy and Literature Together in Reed Award Winners of the Reed Award The work of these outstanding writers has contributed to a deeper understanding SELC launched the Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment in 1994. Its purpose of the value and vulnerability of the South’s natural resources. is to enhance public awareness of the richness and vulnerability of the region’s natural heritage by giving special recognition to writers who most effectively tell the stories about the South’s environment. It is named in honor of SELC founding trustee Phil 2009 Rick Van Noy, A Natural Sense of Wonder Reed, a talented attorney and committed environmental advocate. Reed, a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, Nicole Anderson Ellis, “Land Grab,” Style Weekly (Richmond, Va.) was one of the first practitioners of environmental law. After working in government and for the Environmental Law Institute, a 2008 David Kaufman, Peachtree Creek: A Natural and Unnatural History of Atlanta’s Watershed nonprofit research organization, he headed the environmental practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York. Tim Thornton, “Moving the Mountains,” Roanoke Times Reed’s legacy as an environmental pioneer and his concern for the South’s natural 2006 Thomas Rain Crowe, Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods heritage live on through the enthusiasm of the Reed Award winners and judges. Tony Bartelme, “Under Fire,” Post & Courier (Charleston, S.C.) Award winner and founder of SouthernNature.org John Lane observes, “You do begin 2005 Lawrence Earley, Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest to get a sense that the award winners are on the same mission. We are part of the Alex Shoumatoff, “The Tennessee Tree Massacre,” OnEarth Magazine same tribe, seeking to shine some real light on our relationship with nature and culture in the South.” 2004 Timothy Silver, Mount Mitchell & the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America Harrison Metzger, “The French Broad: Past and Currents,” Times-News (Hendersonville, N.C.) “The South produces the best writers,” says Janisse Ray, award winner and frequent judge for the Reed contest. “Southern nature writers recognize we are dependent on 2003 Chris Bolgiano, Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable Forestry John Leland, Porcher’s Creek: Lives Between the Tides natural processes and are sounding the alarm, putting it in words, and expressing Taylor Bright, “Losing Our Legacy,” Birmingham Post-Herald the thoughts and feelings of all Southerners. Writers are bearing witness to what is happening on the ground in people’s lives. 2002 Earl Swift, Journey on the James: Three Weeks through the Heart of Virginia Ben Raines, series about mercury contamination in seafood, Mobile Register “But if we really want to make a difference in the environment, we need some sharp teeth. The Southern Environmental Law Center has teeth, and everything SELC has 2001 Donald Edward Davis, Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians

BILL LEA ever done for organizations I’ve been involved with has been a success.” John Lane, “Finding the Real in Real Estate: Saving a Girl Scout Camp from Southern Sprawl,” Orion Afield Mark DiVincenzo and Jeff Long, “Tapping into the Future,” Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) The Southern Environmental Law Center works in collaboration with more than 100 local, state, and national partner groups and has handled some 500 projects and cases, achieving significant results. SELC is funded solely by charitable gifts from individuals, 2000 Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood families, and foundations. Steve Nash, Blue Ridge 2020: An Owner’s Manual To learn more about SELC or the Reed Award, to sign up for updates, and to support SELC’s work, visit 1999 Bill Finch and Sam Hodges, “A wilderness despite us: The magnificent Mobile-Tensaw Delta,” Mobile Register SouthernEnvironment.org. Chris Bolgiano, The Appalachian Forest 1998 Charles Seabrook, “River in Peril: How developers, Atlanta sewers threaten the Chattahoochee River,” Atlanta Journal- Constitution The environmental movement should be the empowering and transformative force in the South today, as the civil rights movement was in the 1960s.

Reed Award Judges SELC is indebted to our panel of judges who volunteer their time and talent to make the contest such a success.

Marilou Awiakta—Poet, essayist whose writing weaves her Cherokee and Appa- Nikki Giovanni—Grammy-nominated poet, activist, and author of two dozen books, Deaderick Montague—Civic leader, teacher, and writer; lachian heritage with science; award-winning author of Abiding Appalachia: Where including essay collections, illustrated children’s books, and poetry, most recently guiding inspiration behind creation of the Reed Award; Mountain and Atom Meet and Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother’s Wisdom. Bicycles: Love Poems; Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech. vice president of the SELC Board of Trustees. Joel K. Bourne, Jr.—Contributing writer and former senior editor for the environ- Janet Lembke—Author of Dangerous Birds, River Time, and other nature books; Janisse Ray—Lecturer, essayist, contributor to Orion and ment at National Geographic; winner of the Outstanding Explanatory Journalism translator of Greek and Latin classics; poems and essays have appeared in Audubon, other publications; award-winning author of Ecology of a Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Southern Review, and The New York Times Book Review. Cracker Childhood and Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land. Jan DeBlieu—Author of Wind, winner of the 1999 John Burroughs Medal for Will Martin—Nashville-based attorney and businessman; former deputy assistant Distinguished Natural History Writing, and Year of the Comets; Cape Hatteras secretary at NOAA; senior fellow for the World Wildlife Fund; member of SELC’s Presi- Charles Seabrook—Veteran environmental reporter CoastKeeper. dent’s Council. formerly with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; author of Cumberland Island and other books; Reed Award winner Jim Detjen—Director, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, MSU; Bill McKibben—Author of The End of Nature; Hope, Human and Wild; and Deep 1998. founding president of the Society of Environmental Journalists; former reporter Economy; contributor to The New Yorker, Orion, and The Atlantic Monthly; scholar-in- for the Philadelphia Inquirer; recipient of 45 journalism awards. residence at Middlebury College; founder of 350.org. Donovan Webster— Author of The Burma Road and other books; former editor of Outside magazine; frequent David Gessner—Author of Return of the Osprey, Sick of Nature, and The Prophet Tara Rae Miner—Managing editor of Orion magazine; formerly on staff with Camas contributor to Smithsonian, National Geographic, The of Dry Hill; winner of the 2005 Pushcart Prize; editor-in-chief of Ecotone; faculty and Headwaters News, as well as the Center for the Rocky Mountain West and the New Yorker and other publications. member at UNC Wilmington. Oregon Natural Desert Association. BILL LEA Reed Award Past Judges Jennifer Ackerman—Contributing writer and editor for the New York Times and National Geographic; author of Notes from the Shore. Rick Bass—Author of short stories and novels, including Where the Sea Used to Be; essayist whose work appears in Sierra, Orion, and other magazines; forest protection activist. Rita Mae Brown—Best-selling author of Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Dolley, and other novels. John Casey—Author of the National Book Award-winning novel Spartina and other works; professor at UVa. Douglas Day (deceased)—Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English at UVa; winner of the National Book Award for his biography of Malcolm Lowry. William deBuys—Editor of The Conservation Fund newsletter, Common Ground; author of Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range. Josephine Humphreys—Author of Dreams of Sleep, The Fireman’s Fair, and Rich in Love; winner of the Lyndhurst Prize. John Scott—Retired attorney; conservationist; writer on Alabama’s history and countryside; member of SELC’s President’s Council. Terry Sieg—Businessman, publisher, and wilderness photographer; longtime member of the SELC Board of Trustees. BILL LEA

201 West Main Street Suite 14 Charlottesville, VA 22902 434-977-4090 Cat McCue Reed Award Administrator

CHARLES SHOFFNER [email protected]

About the Southern Environmental Law Center “Results” and “leverage” are the two words most frequently used to describe the Southern Environmental Law Center. Through a powerful combination of law and policy advocacy, SELC stands up for the health and environment of Virginia BILL LEA and the Southeast. Acting in concert with some 100 partner groups, SELC works effectively in all three branches of government to help create, implement, and enforce strong, lasting safeguards that ensure healthy air and water; protect mountain forests, wetlands, and the coast; and conserve our scenic countryside and the special character of our communities. Established in 1986, SELC has 81 staff and is headquartered in Charlottesville with offices in Richmond, Va.; Chapel Hill and Asheville, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Atlanta, Ga.; and Washington, D.C. Visit SELC online at SouthernEnvironment.org.