The annual awards program by the Southern
Environmental Law Center honors extraordinary environmental writers
focused on the South
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Aug. 1, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Today the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)
announced a call for entries to the 2025 Phillip D. Reed
Environmental Writing Award program. The Reed Award celebrates
writers who achieve both literary excellence and offer
extraordinary insight into the South's natural treasures and
environmental challenges.
The Reed Award recognizes outstanding
writing on the Southern environment in two categories.
Each year, two awards are presented to recognize outstanding
writing in the following areas:
- Book Category for works of nonfiction (not self-published)
- Journalism Category for newspaper, magazine, and digital
writing published by a recognized institution such as a news
organization, university, or nonprofit group
Nominations are welcome from anyone, including readers,
authors, and publishers.
In the long, proud tradition of Southern literature, writers
have often drawn on the region's unique natural treasures for
inspiration and insight—from the haunting cypress swamps of
Georgia to the tall mountains of
western North Carolina to the
rolling fields of the Virginia
piedmont. As the South continues to grow and change, writers are
increasingly exploring our relationship with the natural world and
the environmental challenges we face as a region. SELC's Reed
Environmental Writing Award honors the best of these
storytellers.
Recent winners include:
- Emily Strasser, author of
Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History.
- David Folkenflik of NPR,
Mario Ariza and Miranda Green of Floodlight, for their
article, "In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites
that attack their critics", published by NPR.
- Corban Addison, author of Wastelands: The True Story of Farm
Country on Trial.
- Isabelle Chapman, investigative
reporter for CNN for her article "Gambling
'America's Amazon'".
- Alexis Okeowo, staff writer at
The New Yorker for their article "The Heavy Toll of the
Black Belt's Wastewater Crisis".
- Drew Lanham, author of The
Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with
Nature.
There are three options for submitting entries: electronic copy
(up to 64MB), hard copy, or a website link to where the submission
is available for sale. Hard copy submissions will not be returned.
Below are the general contest requirements.
- All submissions must have been published between October 1, 2023, and
September 30, 2024.
- All submissions must relate to the natural environment in at
least one of the following states: Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee,
or Virginia.
- Submissions are due by October 1,
2024, at
https://www.southernenvironment.org/2024-reed-environmental-writing-award-nominations/
- Journalism entries must be at least 1,000 words and may consist
of a single article or a group of articles.
Reed Award winners are selected by a national panel of judges
that includes leading environmental writers, journalists, and
advocates. The awards honor the late Phillip D. Reed, a distinguished attorney,
committed environmental activist, and a founding trustee of
SELC.
An award ceremony honoring the 2025 winners will be held in
person on March 21 in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a part of the
Virginia Festival of the Book. The event will also be streamed live
online.
About Southern Environmental Law Center:
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation's
most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South.
With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental
challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to
protect our region's air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and
people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of
200, including more than 120 legal and policy experts, and is
headquartered in Charlottesville,
Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel
Hill, Charleston,
Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.
southernenvironment.org.
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SOURCE Southern Environmental Law Center