National Outdoor Book Awards Announced

By David Frey, 11-19-08

This years National Outdoor Book Awards honor crusaders to save the American chestnut tree, Grand Canyon explorers and the widow of mountaineer Alex Lowe, rebuilding her life after the death of her husband in a Himalayan mountaineering accident.

“What a year it was,” says Ron Watters, professor emeritus at Idaho State University. “The writing in the outdoor field has always been good, but it just keeps getting better – and this year it was outstanding.”

The awards are bestowed by the NOBA Foundation, Idaho State University and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education. Among the winners:

The American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree. Susan Freinkel’s tale won in the natural history literature category.

Forget Me Not: A Memoir, Jennifer Lowe-Anker’s (a Montana native) story of life after her husband’s death in the Himalayas, with a forward by Jon Krakauer, won in the outdoor literature category.

Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of the Grand Canyon. Elias Butler and Tom Myers’ chronicle of an intrepid Grand Canyon explorer won in the history/biography category. It was one of a few Grand Canyon books to take a prize.

The American Booksellers Association is huddling in Salt Lake City for its fourth annual Winter Institute, Jan. 29-Feb. 1. The event kicks off with a discussion about the state of the book industry with panelists from publishers Grove/Atlantic, Scribners and Harper Studio. As a hint to what the state of the industry might be, the event includes a more than three-hour-long session on surviving tough economic times.

A pre-conference session focuses on local first/shop first initiatives, including a welcome by Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker and independent bookseller Betsy Burton, of Salt Lake’s The King’s English. Burton is also a leader in Local First Utah.

Others talking up the “buy local” message will be Stacy Mitchell, author of Big Box Swindle, and Utah’s own Terry Tempest Williams.

Speaking of Terry Tempest Williams, she’s scheduled to present the George Link Jr. Environmental Awareness Lecture at Dartmouth on Thursday, Nov. 20. Williams is most recently the author of Finding Beauty in a Broken World.