The James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 longlist announced.
Independent publishers dominate as former winners Dara McAnulty, Amy Liptrot and Adam Nicolson are longlisted alongside 2022 Yoto Carnegie winner, Katya Balen; environmental activist, George Monbiot, and Scottish poet John Burnside
Helen Musselwhite announced as official James Cropper Wainwright Prize paper artist for 2022.
Named after much-loved nature writer Alfred Wainwright, the aim of the Prize is to inspire everyone to connect with nature and embrace the outdoors. This year’s longlisted books reflect the astonishing range and depth of nature writing, with titles that confront difficult, yet vitally important issues around climate change and food supplies; celebrate the wonder of life in our back gardens and illuminate the healing power of nature. As established authors vie with exciting up-and-coming writers in the genre, independent publishers dominate, with fourteen
represented across the three longlists.
In the inaugural year for the Children’s Nature and Conservation Prize, the longlisted fiction and non-fiction titles range from a guide to the extraordinary contribution bugs make to our planet written by the Natural History Museum’s senior entomologist; to novels that variously place us in the shoes of an isolated girl living off-grid, a teenage climate change activist, and a bird-watching detective.
Award-winning teenage naturalist, Dara McAnulty, the winner of the 2020 Nature Writing Prize, is longlisted for the Children’s Prize for his multi-sensory guide to exploring the nature on your doorstep while Katya Balen is nominated for her 2022 Yoto Carnegie Award winner, October, October.
Following a multi-year commitment from the papermaker James Cropper, the prize will now be known as The James Cropper Wainwright Prize. Having made fine papers for publishing, premium print, art and luxury packaging since 1845 in the very town where Alfred Wainwright lived and worked, the partnership underpins the shared history and purpose of the two organisations.
James Cropper creates solutions for the publishing sector which leave little to no trace on the planet through its FibreBlend Upcycled Technology. Using its game changing CupCycling facility, the papermaker recently gave new life to 10.5 million paper cups used in McDonald’s restaurants for drinks and soft ice creams, transforming them into children’s books on nature and conservation to replace toys in the chain’s Happy Meals. By extracting the valuable paper fibre from the cups, the partnership created a circular story which converts something with a single use, into something to treasure, educate and pass on.
The 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing longlist is:
- Otherlands: A World in the Making, Dr Thomas Halliday (Allen Lane)
- 12 Birds to Save Your Life: Nature’s Lessons in Happiness, Charlie Corbett (Penguin)
- Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other, James Aldred (Elliott & Thompson)
- Much Ado About Mothing: A year intoxicated by Britain’s rare and remarkable moths, James Lowen (Bloomsbury Wildlife)
- On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging, Nicola Chester (Chelsea Green Publishing)
- Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain, Matthew Green (Faber & Faber)
- The Heeding, Rob Cowen, illustrated by Nick Hayes (Elliott & Thompson)
- The Instant, Amy Liptrot (Canongate)
- The Sea Is Not Made of Water: Life Between the Tides, Adam Nicolson (William Collins)
- The Trespasser’s Companion, Nick Hayes (Bloomsbury)
- Time on Rock: A Climber’s Route into the Mountains, Anna Fleming (Canongate)
- Wild Green Wonders: A Life in Nature, Patrick Barkham (Guardian Faber Publishing)
The 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation is:
- Abundance: Nature in Recovery, Karen Lloyd (Bloomsbury Wildlife)
- Aurochs and Auks, John Burnside (Little Toller Books)
- Climate Change is Racist, Jeremy Williams and Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (Icon Books)
- Divide: The relationship crisis between town and country, Anna Jones (Kyle Books)
- Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them, Dan Saladino (Jonathan Cape)
- Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis, Alice Bell (Bloomsbury Sigma)
- Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, George Monbiot (Allen Lane)
- Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, Dave Goulson (Vintage)
- Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales, Doreen Cunningham (Virago)
- The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World, Oliver Milman (Atlantic Books)
- The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth, Ben Rawlence (Jonathan Cape)
- The Women Who Saved the English Countryside, Matthew Kelly (Yale University Press)
- Wild Fell: Fighting for nature on a Lake District hill farm, Lee Schofield (Doubleday)
The 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation longlist is:
- A Bug’s World, Dr Erica McAlister, illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman (Wren & Rook)
- Around the World in 80 Trees, Ben Lerwill, illustrated by Kaja Kajfež (Welbeck)
- By Rowan and Yew, Melissa Harrison (Chicken House)
- Julia and the Shark, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Tom de Freston (Orion Children’s Books)
- Nests, Susan Ogilvy (Particular Books)
- October, October, Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
- One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth, Nicola Davies, illustrated by Jenni Desmond (Walker Books)
- Spark, Mitch Johnson (Orion Children’s Books)
- The Biggest Footprint: Eight billion humans. One clumsy giant, Rob Sears, illustrated by Tom Sears (Canongate)
- The Summer We Turned Green, William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury YA)
- Twitch, M.G. Leonard (Walker Books)
- Wild Child: A Journey Through Nature, Dara McAnulty, illustrated by Barry Falls (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Now in its ninth year, the Nature Writing Prize judging panel is chaired by TV presenter Ray Mears. BBC Countryfile presenter; Charlotte Smith is the Chair of Judges for the Conservation Prize and former CBeebies TV presenter, Gemma Hunt chairs the new Children’s Prize.
The prize shortlists will be announced on 28th July and the winners’ announcement will be made live on 7th September at The London Wetland Centre.
