Reed Environmental Writing Award announces 2023 call for entries

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Aug 02, 2022, 10:00 ET

The annual awards program by the Southern Environmental Law Center honors extraordinary environmental writers focused on the South

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Aug. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) announced a call for entries for the 2023 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award, celebrating writers who achieve both literary excellence and offer extraordinary insight into the South's natural treasures and environmental challenges.

Presented each year, the Reed Award recognizes outstanding writing on the Southern environment in two categories: the Book Category for works of nonfiction (not self-published) and the 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:

Catherine Coleman Flowers, author of Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret
Alexis Okeowo, staff writer at The New Yorker
Tony Bartelme, a special projects reporter for the Charleston Post and Courier
Margaret Renkl, opinion writer for the New York Times and author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss
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 general contest requirements.

All submissions must have been published between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022.
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, 2022 at southernenvironment.org
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.

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 100 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. southernenvironment.org

SOURCE Southern Environmental Law Center