The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Calls for applications for The Nature Conservancy of Australia’s second biennial Nature Writing Prize will open on Monday 16 July.

The $5,000 biennial award is for an essay between 3,000 and 5,000 words in the genre of ‘Writing of Place.

The competition’s judges are Geordie Williamson, literary critic with The Australian, and Dr Janine Burke, distinguished biographer, art historian and author of The Nest.

They will award the prize to an Australian writer whose entry is judged to be of the highest literary merit and which best explores his or her relationship and interaction with some aspect of the Australian landscape.

The Nature Conservancy Nature Writing Prize was created to promote and celebrate the art of nature writing in Australia as well as to encourage a greater appreciation of Australia’s magnificent landscapes.

The prize has been made possible thanks to a generous donation from The McLean Foundation, which is keen to promote and celebrate the literature of nature in Australia.

The deadline for submissions, which are capped at 5,000 words, is 16 November 2012. The winner will be announced next March in Melbourne.

Writers can register their expression of interest in the prize at natureaustralia.org.au or by e-mailing Australia@tnc.org.