Michael Welland has received the 2010 John Burroughs Medal for his book Sand: The Never Ending Story. The Medal honors the year’s most distinguished natural history writing.
Welland joins Burroughs award recipients Alexander Skutch, who won the Medal in 1983 for “A Naturalist on a Tropical Farm”; David Rains Wallace, whose Sierra Club book The Klamath Knot won the Medal in 1984 (UC Press published the 20th Anniversary edition in 2003); and Judith Larner Lowry, whose essay “Birdsong Ripens Berries, Wind Brings the Seeds”, from The Landscaping Ideas of Jays, won the Burroughs Essay Award in 2005. Other winners include John McPhee and Gary Paul Nabhan.
Welland recently took Sand on a virtual book tour, visiting geology blogs to discuss the mysteries and science of this remarkable substance. Retrace Welland’s steps on the virtual book tour here.
