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Announcement: 2010 Orion Book Award Finalists

March 11, 2010

We’re happy to announce the five finalists for the 2010 Orion Book Award:

• Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing: Living in the Future, by Charles Bowden (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, by Wade Davis (House of Anansi Press)

• Rewilding the West: Restoration in a Prairie Landscape, by Richard Manning (University of California Press)

• Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing: Stories, by Lydia Peelle (Harper Perennial)

• The Barbaric Heart: Faith, Money, and the Crisis of Nature, by Curtis White (PoliPointPress)

For more information about the books and the Award, go to orionmagazine.org/oba.

National Magazine Award Finalist!

March 10, 2010

We are happy to see that Orion and Joe Wilkins’ “Out West” are among finalists in 2010 National Magazine Award Essay category: http://bit.ly/X067U.

For the National Magazine Award finalists, see the press release here.

2010 John Burroughs Award Winner: Scott Russell Sanders

March 09, 2010

We are thrilled that Scott Russell Sanders has won this year’s John Burroughs Award for an Outstanding Published Nature Essay, an annual award.

The award announcement says in part: “Drawn to all trees, but especially to ancient ones, Scott Russell Sanders, in his essay “Mind in the Forest” (Orion, Nov./Dec. 2009), based on time spent on the western slope of the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon, finds himself meditating by an old Douglas fir, “reclaiming,” as he says, even if momentarily, “the full powers of mind.” He also provides a detailed sense impression of place, with reflections on his—and our—role in the natural world, both as despoiler and co-inhabitant with trees, animals, earth, the universe itself.”

Reviving “A Place Where You Live”

March 03, 2010

Some of you might remember The Place Where You Live—a reader-generated department that ran in Orion for many years.

We’re bringing it back. Please tell us about the place where you live, or send us a picture or drawing of it.

For more information click here.

Orion Photographer Wins Picture of the Year International Prize

March 02, 2010

Carolyn Drake’s Asian rivers project, published in the March-April issue under the title “Return to the Center of the World” (http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5331), just won first place in the nature story category in the POYI competition. While this is not for the Orion article specifically (these awards are first and foremost for the photographers projects and her project was not only our assignment), what we published was the primary editorial expression of this winning series and we were largely responsible for developing and supporting the project.

POYI, which stands for Picture of the Year International (http://www.poyi.org) is one of the largest, most prestigious annual photojournalism awards programs in the world. Winning one of these categories is a huge milestone in a photographer’s career. This is tremendous affirmation that what we’re doing with these sorts of deeper photojournalistic projects is at times, literally, some of the best work happening anywhere.

Poetry Editor Hannah Fries Judges Poetry Out Loud

February 10, 2010

On Tuesday, February 9, poetry editor Hannah Fries took a field trip to nearby Monument Mountain Regional High School to judge the school’s final rounds of Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The winner, Roo Sprague, will go on to compete at the state level. If the enthusiastic performances at Monument Mountain are any indication, poetry is alive and well!

Pictured: Hannah with school champion Roo Sprague (right) and finalist Joseph Heath (center).  Roo recited “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats and “Preludes” by T.S. Eliot.

Hannah Fries—Busy!

February 09, 2010

Assistant Editor (and Orion‘s Poetry Editor) Hannah Fries, in the final stages of getting her M.F.A. in poetry from Warren Wilson College, is also busy as a judge for Monument Mountain (MA) High School’s Poetry Out Loud finals, and as a judge for a poetry contest for Waldorf College in Iowa, where Orion author Joe Wilkins teaches.

March/April 2010 Orion—Almost

January 26, 2010

Below are Jamie Goldenberg’s photos of the near-birth March/April Orion.

Above: A view of a freshly printed sheet inside the press. Orion‘s paper consists of 50% postconsumer fiber, is FSC-certified, and is chlorine-free. It is also carbon-neutral.

A sneak preview of an upcoming feature by Carolyn Drake.

Hans Teensma of Impress (left) discusses color with Scott from The Studley Press.

Orion Selected for Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

January 14, 2010

We are very pleased that Orion is among the approximately 60 organizations to be awarded an Access to Artistic Excellence grant by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Board Member Peter Blanchard’s Upcoming Book

January 13, 2010

We look forward to the April 2010 release of Peter Blanchard‘s We Were An Island, which chronicles the lives of Art and Nan Kellam, who lived year-round on a tiny island off the coast of Maine for 40 years. Peter is a member of the Orion Society board of directors.