Robin Wall Kimmerer Wins the Stone Award for Literary Achievement

Robin Wall Kimmerer, a State University of New York Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse and the founder and director of its Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, was selected as the winner of the 2024 Stone Award for Literary Achievement.

The Stone Award, which includes a $20,000 honorarium, recognizes major American authors with bodies of critically acclaimed work that influence multiple generations of writers, readers, and thinkers. The award is one of the largest prizes of its kind given by an American university. It was established in 2011 by Patrick and Vicki Stone with a gift to the Oregon State University Foundation to spotlight the university’s master of fine arts in creative writing program in the School of Writing, Literature and Film.

“Robin Wall Kimmerer is not merely a writer; she’s a scientist, a storyteller, and a philosopher. I can’t think of another author who examines the relationships between human and landscape with such wisdom and clarity — not to mention delight,” said Elena Passarello, associate professor and director of the Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Oregon State University.

Dr. Kimmerer is best known for her bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed, 2020) in which she explores the reciprocal relationship between humanity and the natural world and the need for greater ecological awareness. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Oregon State University Press, 2003) teaches readers about how mosses live and are intertwined with other living things. In 2022 she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Dr. Kimmerer holds a bachelor’s degree in botany from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Wisconsin.