Green Alert: Orion Book Award
Posted by: Donna Seaman
Donna Seaman here, with my first Green Alert. As an eco-minded reader and reviewer, I’ll be watching for news about environmental books and web sites and other eco-lit matters of interest. Spring is the right season for new green actions, and along with crocuses and robins, we have a green book short list.
Yes, it’s time for the third annual Orion Book Award, which recognizes outstanding books about nature, environmental concerns, and our place in and perception of the living world. The first award went to Wild: An Elemental Journey by Jay Griffiths. The second went to a particular favorite of mine, The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. This year, I have the honor of serving as a judge along with Harper‘s editor Roger D. Hodge, Scott Russell Sanders (A Conservationist Manifesto), Susan Straight (A Million Nightingales), and H. Emerson Blake (Orion editor-in-chief).
Here are the finalists:
The Bridge at the Edge of the World, by James Gustave Speth,
Finding Beauty in a Broken World, by Terry Tempest Williams
Inventing Niagara, by Ginger Strand
Trespass, by Amy Irvine
The Wild Places, by Robert Macfarlane
The winner will be announced Friday, March 27, so watch for another Green Alert.
