The Wainwright Prize today announced its 2024 shortlists across three categories: the Prize for Nature Writing, the Prize for Writing on Conservation, and the Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation.
The Prize showcases writing that reflects its namesake Alfred Wainwright’s values of celebrating nature and our environment, nurturing respect for our planet, and informing readers of the threats that the earth currently faces.
The judging panels for the three categories bring together industry expertise, experience from some of the UK’s largest nature charities, authors, activists, booksellers, and scientific researchers.
The Nature Writing Prize judging panel is chaired by Biologist and Natural History Museum Podcaster, Dr Khalil Thirlaway; Joycelyn Longdon, PhD student at Cambridge University and Founder of Climate in Colour is the Chair of Judges for Writing on Conservation; and Roisin Taylor, Co-Director at UK Youth for Nature, chairs the Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation.
On the shortlist, Lee Schofield, Judge for the Nature Writing Prize says:
“This year’s Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing Shortlist is nothing less than extraordinary. The shortlisted authors bring uniquely diverse perspectives, exploring our relationship with the non-human world in genuinely breathtaking ways.”
On the shortlist, Mark Funnell, Judge for the Writing for Conservation Prize says:
“Any one of these books would be a worthy winner. Not only do they speak to some of the most pressing crises facing humanity today, but they also pack a real punch – white-knuckle page turners, deeply affecting testimonies, excoriating exposes. Buckle up.”
On the shortlist, Uju Asika, Judge for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation Prize, says:
“Each one of these shortlisted books stood out for its literary excellence, offering something unique in terms of writing voice, art style, unforgettable characters, danger, and humour. Each one evokes nature at its wildest and most wondrous and made me feel like (or want to be) a better human being for having read it.”
The Wainwright Prize is working in close partnership with designer and illustrator Emily Wainwright to develop bespoke illustrations that will be threaded throughout this year’s visual campaign, including all design assets and the trophies presented to the three winners. The winners will be announced on Wednesday 11th September at a ceremony at Camley Street Natural Park, near Kings Cross in London, where a £7,500 prize fund will be shared.
With a focus on the nature that can be uncovered in our own gardens, therapist, writer and amateur gardener Marchelle Farrell’s Uprooting tells the story of her experience leaving Trinidad for the peaceful English countryside. Having uprooted her entire life during a time when a global pandemic and racial reckoning collided, Farrell explores her journey to feel grounded in her new home through a relationship with her growing garden. Writer and novelist Olivia Laing also focuses on the humble garden, having set out to restore an overgrown walled garden in Suffolk. Inspired by this experience, The Garden Against Time blends history, horticulture, art and biography in a meditation on the role of the garden through Western culture.
Another personal narrative, journalist and author Rebecca Smith’s Rural turns her attention to her own family’s history of millworkers in order to explore the people whose labour has shaped our countryside. Homing in on the precarity for those whose lives are entangled in the natural landscape, Smith traces how these rural working-class worlds have changed. Global adventurer, Alastair Humphrey, is another author who has turned his eye towards his own neighbourhood in Local. In an ode to slowing down, Humphrey’s goes in search of nearby nature by spending a year exploring a detailed map around his home, resulting in a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep. In Bothy, historian and researcher Kat Hill explores wild mountain huts where adventurers can stay, but can’t reserve, taking readers on a journey around the UK and weaving together her own story of heartbreak and newfound purpose with a consideration of nature, wilderness and escape.
This year’s only essay collection, Dispersals, is written by Jessica J. Lee. Born in Canada to a Taiwanese mother and a Welsh father, Lee is a perfectly placed observer of our world in motion. This vibrant book explores the entanglements between the plant and human worlds, and the echoes she detects in the migration of both plants and people. In a second meditation on migration, writer and teacher Michael Malay’s Late Light combines natural history and memoir in an exploration of the author’s journey as an Indonesian Australian making a home in England. Through an examination of our particular ‘unloved’ animals, Malay explores economic, political and cultural events that have shaped Britain.
Activist Tori Tsui reframes eco-anxiety as an urgent mental health crisis in her debut book, It’s Not Just You. Drawing on the wisdom of environmental advocates on the frontlines of eco-activism around the globe, Tsui sets out how the current climate-related mental health struggle encompasses many injustices and is deeply entrenched in systems such as racism, sexism, ableism and capitalism. Another urgent title with a strong focus on climate change, bestselling author John Vaillant’s Fire Weather examines the devastating effect of climate change on the planet, demonstrating how deadly wildfires will only become more prevalent.
Turning a journalistic eye to another global issue, Oliver Franklin-Wallis reveals the dirty truth about the global waste industry in his debut, Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters. This eye-opening and hopeful book travels from the landfills of New Delhi to the overflowing sewers of Britain to explain how we can create a better, less wasteful world. Also with a global scope is Blue Machine by Helen Czerski, who blends marine biology, history and climate change concerns in a spellbinding exploration of the ocean. Drawing on years of experience in marine science, Czerski explores this complex, interlinked system and the multitude of ways life on the rest of the planet depends on it.
Another debut title, Nature’s Ghosts by writer and journalist Sophie Yeo maps the global landscape lost to time as a result of humanity’s influence. In this haunting book, Yeo recreates the sublime majesty of the natural world in its earliest, most diverse form to show what history can teach us about how to avoid ecological catastrophe. Our last debut in this category, Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar by naturalist Chantal Lyons is a journey of discovery with a historic scope. Following the return of wild boar to Britain, Lyons meets with conservationists and critics to reveal what it might take for us to coexist with this complex species.
The first graphic book to be shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize, Global by former Irish Children’s Laureate Eoin Colfer and author Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano, is a powerful and timely story about the real effects of climate change. It tells the tale of two young people on different continents who are both struggling to survive after their lives are catastrophically changed by global warming. Another tale of adventure and journeys, Foxlight by Katya Balen, follows two twins into the ferocious wilderness in an attempt to find their mother. A heartwarming story, Balen’s book explores sisterhood, found family and accepting love in the most unknown places.
Immersive fantasy epics feature strongly in this year’s shortlist, including Katherine Rundell’s latest novel, Impossible Creatures, which follows an ordinary boy and a flying girl who become enmeshed in an adventure with a host of magical creatures and must face a number of demanding obstacles together. Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s latest novel, In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen, the first in the ‘Geomancer’ trilogy, is an epic new fantasy about the magic of nature, the lure of power and the strength of love. Nicola Davies’ Skrimsli, illustrated by Jackie Morris, is a fantasy adventure set in a world where animals and humans can share their thoughts. A story full of excitement and danger, Skrimsli explores themes of friendship, loyalty, identity and love.
Giselle Clarkson’s The Observologist is a highly illustrated field guide for curious observers of the world right under our noses, featuring hundreds of bugs, creatures and creepy crawlies under the microscope to encourage budding natural scientists to get out and explore the great outdoors. From the earth to the sky, Fly: A Child’s Guide to Birds and Where to Spot Them by David Lindo, illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows, is an ideal introduction for children to the diversity of birdlife around the globe in a beautifully illustrated collection of more than 150 birds, packed with interesting facts and extraordinary species. Another stunningly illustrated title, Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back by Isabella Tree, illustrated by Angela Harding, tells the story of the rewilding of the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. Featuring garden activities to ‘re-wild’ your own spaces, Wilding encourages young readers to observe the natural world around them and start to understand the connections between species and habitat.