Congratulations to Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Washington author of Urban Bestiary, and Rick Bass, Montana author of All the Land to Hold Us, whose books have been selected as nonfiction and fiction finalists for the 2014 Orion Book Award.
Each spring, the Orion Book Award is presented to books that deepen the reader’s connection to the natural world through fresh ideas and excellence in writing. The award has been conferred annually by Orion magazine since 2007.
In 2014, there will be an award for works of both fiction and nonfiction – in past years, both categories competed for the same award. Over 250 books published in 2013 were considered for this year’s awards.
The four fiction finalists for the 2014 Orion Book Award are:
• All the Land to Hold Us, by Rick Bass (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Archipelago, by Monique Roffey (Penguin Books)
• The Last Animal, by Abby Geni (Counterpoint)
• MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese)
And the four nonfiction finalists are:
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
• Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, by Alan Weisman (Little, Brown, and Company)
• Sightlines: A Conversation with the Natural World, by Kathleen Jamie (The Experiment)
• The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (Little, Brown, and Company)
The winner of each category will be announced in the second week of May.
Orion is a bimonthly magazine that publishes writing and art that explore the connection between nature and culture, and seeks to inspire new thinking about how humanity might live on Earth justly, sustainably, and joyously.
