The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Calling all nature writers! The Nature Conservancy today announced the opening of the second biennial Australia Nature Writing Prize. (Download the entry form.)

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 Australia 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 the generous support of The McLean Foundation, which is committed to promoting and celebrating the literature of nature in Australia.

Dr Michael Looker, Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Australia Division, said today that he looked forward to building on the success of the first nature writing prize, which attracted over 130 writers.

The inaugural prize was won by Annamaria Weldon for her piece "Threshold Country," which the judges described as "a marvellously orchestrated, complex meditation on belonging. It is at once assured and yet gently voiced."

Short listed writers included Will Mooney (Tasmania) for "Cape Bernier;" Stephen McAlpine (WA) for "Living on the Edge;" Tanya Massy (Victoria) for "Pulse;" and Nick Drayson (ACT) for "My Place."

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