THE MOTH NATURE WRITING PRIZE 2021 IS NOW OPEN
‘I wish that we would not fight for landscapes that remind us of who we think we are. I wish we would fight, instead, for landscapes buzzing and glowing with life in all its variousness.’ Helen Macdonald
‘The answer to the still present threat of a silent spring is for us to sing against the storm.’ Richard Mabey, 2020 judge
‘What a great competition to be running.’ Robert Macfarlane
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Moth Nature Writing Prize aims to encourage and celebrate the art of nature writing. It is awarded annually to an unpublished piece of prose or poetry which best combines exceptional literary merit with an exploration of the writer’s relationship with the natural world.
The prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.
Each year a single judge is asked to choose one winner from entries worldwide, to feature in the winter issue of The Moth. The winner receives €1,000 and a week at Circle of Misse in France. The inaugural judge in 2020 was Richard Mabey.
‘It gives me so much confidence and it is wonderful to have my writing out there and enjoyed by others.’ Sammy Weaver on winning the inaugural prize in 2020
THE JUDGE
Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, naturalist and historian of science. Her book H is for Hawk won many prizes, including the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Costa Book of the Year, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger in France, and in the US was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine, and lives in Suffolk.
‘An absolute classic of nature writing.’ Nick Barley, Guardian
‘What she has achieved is a very rare thing in literature – a completely realistic account of a human relationship with animal consciousness.’ John Carey, Sunday Times
For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.