The 2024 Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing, known as the Thoreau Prize, will be awarded to J. Drew Lanham.

The Thoreau Prize was established in 2010 by nature writer Dale Peterson. In 2020, the Thoreau Society began administering the award.

The Thoreau Prize is a literary award granted annually to an accomplished writer in English who, with a comparable intensity, wishes to speak for nature and embodies the spirit of Thoreau as a gifted writer, insightful naturalist, and ethical thinker. Although it has traditionally been granted as a lifetime achievement award, the prize may also be given to mid-career nature writers who have demonstrated exceptional promise in any genre (poetry, fiction, or nonfiction). The award consists of $2,500 and a commemorative gift.

Join the Thoreau Society for a presentation by this year’s award winner, J. Drew Lanham, on October 25, followed by a book signing.

Joseph Drew Lanham is an ornithologist, naturalist, writer, and poet combining conservation science with personal, historical, and cultural narratives of nature. Lanham’s research and teaching focuses on the impacts of forest management on birds and other wildlife. He brings this ecological knowledge as well as his perspective as a Black man living in the South to bear on his work as a storyteller, poet, and passionate advocate for bird-watching, outdoor recreation, and environmental conservation and stewardship.

In his 2016 book, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, Lanham traces his love of birds and nature back to his family’s small farm in rural South Carolina. Lanham is also the author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts (2021) and Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves (2024), both published by Hub City Writers Project. Lanham has published in a variety of leading journals and media platforms, including Audubon, Orion, Vanity Fair, Forest Ecology and Management, and Oxford American. He is poet laureate of Edgefield, South Carolina.

Lanham received a BA (1988), an MS (1990), and a PhD (1997) from Clemson University, where he is currently Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher in the Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department. He was an inaugural fellow of the Audubon-Toyota Together Green Initiative and is an Advisory Council member of the North American Association for Environmental Education. In 2022, he received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award.

photo credit: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.