One Week Left to Enter SELC’s Writing Contest

The Southern Environmental Law Center is accepting submissions for the annual Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment for one more week.  The deadline for entries is January 11. Finalists will be judged by SELC’s panel of renowned environmental writers and activists including Bill McKibben, Jim Detjen, Janisse Ray and many others.

The writing contest has two categories: Book, for non-fiction books (not self-published), and Journalism, for newspaper and magazine writing – and new this year, we will accept online writing that is published by a recognized institution such as a newspaper, university or non-profit organization, and is journalistic in nature. The primary judging criteria is the quality of writing.  Prizes of $1,000 are awarded to the winner in each of the Journalism and Book categories.  The winners will be announced at SELC’s headquarters in Charlottesville during the Virginia Festival of the Book in March.

See our website (https://www.southernenvironment.org/about/reed_environmental_writing_award) for details, including a full list of the contest judges.
 
SELC is delighted to announce that best-selling author Lee Smith will be the featured guest at our special event in conjunction with the Virginia Festival of the Book this year in Charlottesville. A native of southwest Virginia who now resides in North Carolina, Ms. Smith is a true voice of the South. Her stories are set in distinctively southern landscapes that infuse her characters and plots in a uniquely southern way. On March 20, as part of the Festival of the Book, SELC will host Ms. Smith, who will read from her newly released book, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, and talk about her love of the southern landscape.  Winners of SELC’s writing contest will be announced to the public, and will read from their winning entries.
 
The award is named in memory of SELC founding trustee Phillip D. Reed, a talented attorney and committed environmental activist who helped guide our organization through the early years before his untimely death in 1993.