2008 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award Finalist

2008 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award Finalist

Lyanda Lynn Haupt
for Crow Planet (to be published by Little, Brown and Company)

Judges' Citation

"Lyanda Lynn Haupt's Crow Planet promises to be a fascinating and original book. In a gentle, meditative, yet highly persuasive voice, this ornithologist and conservationist urges readers to pay attention to the natural world, even if they live in towns and suburbs. In particular, Ms. Haupt wants us to pay attention to a bird that casual observers tend to love or hate: the crow. There are more crows on earth now than ever before—an ominous sign, she writes, of ‘rampant habitat destruction, and the creation of an earth that is inhospitable to all but a handful of the most resilient beings.’ The author has watched and reflected extensively on her sooty subjects: she admires their parenting; she sees through the cocky strutting to their basic shyness. What are crows doing when they lie on their sides with their mouths open? When they drop sticks and catch them over and over? Solving these puzzles, she believes, may help us understand ourselves and even save our planet."   

Bio

Naturalist and writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and as a seabird researcher for the Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific.  Her first book, Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (Sasquatch, 2001), explores the relationship between humans, birds, and ecological understanding, and is a winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award.  Her writing has appeared in Image, Open Spaces, Wild Earth, Conservation Biology Journal, Birdwatcher's Digest, and the Prairie Naturalist. Her newest book, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent:  The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks, was published by Little, Brown & Co. She lives in West Seattle with her husband and daughter.

Judges for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award

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