Thoreau Prize Honoring Ross Gay
The Thoreau Alliance announces that Ross Gay is the winner of the 2026 Henry David Thoreau Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing.
On June 14, 2026, Gay will appear in Concord, Massachusetts, to accept the Thoreau Prize and deliver an address at the Trinitarian Congregational (TriCon) Church on Walden Street.
Through his writing, Ross Gay reminds us to notice the small wonders of life, to approach the world with curiosity, and to find delight in the ordinary—expanding what we think of as nature writing in ways that are both tender, insightful, and exuberant.
He is the author of four books of poetry—Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His three essay collections—The Book of Delights (2019), Inciting Joy (2022), and The Book of (More) Delights (2023)—invite readers into the attentive, joyful world he so thoughtfully renders.
In doing so, he shows that gratitude, curiosity, and delight are themselves a way of being fully present—a sensibility that echoes Thoreau’s attentiveness to nature, his reverence for the small details of daily life, and his belief that wonder is essential to living well.
The Thoreau Prize, established in 2010 by nature writer Dale Peterson and administered by the Thoreau Society (now the Thoreau Alliance) since 2020, is awarded annually to a writer who, like Henry David Thoreau, speaks for nature with insight, eloquence, and ethical depth. Past recipients include Jane Goodall, Drew Lanham, Mary Oliver, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
This program will be free for students and educators. Contact info@thoreaualliance.org to register.
Details about online access to follow.
The Thoreau Alliance does not exclude anyone because of the inability to pay. Please contact rebecca@thoreaualliance.org to request reduced rates.