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2012 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Awardee Philip Connors to speak at Northland

October 30, 2012

Author Philip Connors has been chosen as the 2012 winner of the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award (SONWA). Connors will discuss his award-winning book "Fire Season: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout" on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. in the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. Connors' book was selected from more than 40 submissions to a committee of readers from Northland College and the community. The event, another offering in the Northland College Community Connections series, is free and open to the public.

Connors book chronicles his experience as a fire lookout in a mountain-top tower in New Mexico's Gila National Forest.

"[Connors' book] is as much a celebration of solitude as Thoreau's ‘Walden,'" says Ted Gostomski, SONWA selection committee member and biologist for the National Park Service. "It is a proud paean to the history of wilderness preservation and conservation. And it is a serious reminder of the dangers inherent with putting oneself between what one holds dear and the fire that threatens to consume it."

Connors left his position as an editor for The Wall Street Journal in 2002 to become a seasonal fire lookout. The book outlines the significance of wildfires and their ecological impact on the landscape.

"I'm delighted to be coming to Northland College to accept the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, named in honor of one of the great American natural historians and wilderness advocates," said Connors. "Olson's books on the northern borderlands were an inspiration as I wrote about my own adopted home on America's southern border, and it humbles me to think that our two names would have reason to appear in the same sentence."

"Fire Season" was named the best nature book of the year by Amazon.com. Connors' book also garnered the National Outdoor Book Award and Reading the West Book Award. Connors comes from a print background and received his bachelor's degree in print journalism from the University of Montana.

The award recipient receives a $1,000 cash prize and an invitation to visit Northland College for an award ceremony and reading. Interactions at these readings between authors and Northland College students, area residents, and environmental artists are invaluable to the Chequamegon Bay region, literary and arts community and educational experience at Northland College. The award is made possible through individual donations and an endowment from Eileen Long, former Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Advisory Board member.