Terry Tempest Williams, writer-in-residence at Harvard Divinity School, will receive the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times. According to the newspaper, the award is a lifetime achievement prize “given to a writer with a substantial connection to the American West.”
Williams is currently serving her second consecutive academic year as writer-in-residence at Harvard Divinity School. In this position, she writes about the spiritual implications of climate change, gives public talks, teaches courses, and leads seminars with Divinity School students. She is the author of numerous books including Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place (Pantheon, 2002)and The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks (Sarah Crichton Books, 2016).
In announcing the award, Julia Turner, the Times’ deputy managing editor for arts and entertainment, said of Williams: “With issues of the environment and climate change becoming increasingly urgent, what better moment to recognize someone who has focused her creative life on writing about the land and fighting for environmental issues in the most elegant and articulate way?”
Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in biology and a master’s degree in environmental education both from the University of Utah.