The Santa Monica Public Library has broken the ice. In September 2007 they will award the first annual Green Prize for Sustainable Literature.
The award will “commend authors, illustrators, and publishers who produce quality books for adults and young people that make significant contributions to, support the ideas of, and broaden public awareness of sustainability”.
All books published in the United States during the 2006 calendar year are eligible.
The deadline is April 30.
Kudos to the City of Santa Monica and their library. The award deserves to be as prestigious and coveted as any existing literary award.
To get warmed up for the award have a listen to:
NPR’s story the “Year of Living Environmentally”
They talk to Colin Beavan about his year-long experiment on “No Impact Living.
The plan :
Eat food grown within a 250-mile radius of their apartment
Not use any paper products, including toilet paper.
No public transportation.
No elevator.
They live in New York City in an apartment on the 9th floor.
Keep up with the experiment at Beavan’s blog. He already has a book deal with FSG for a 2009 release. The book is already the favorite for the 2009 Green Prize.
This coming Saturday, April 14, is the National Day of Climate Action rally sponsored by Step It Up. Find out here what is going on in your area. There are over 1300 events scheduled in 50 states.
The goal: To cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Doable and necessary.
The event’s founder Bill “End of Nature” McKibben has been chronicling the path over at grist.
Thanks to Library Journal for the Green Prize lead