The Nature Chronicles Prize is a new biennial, international, English-language literary award that aims to discover engaging, unique, essay-length non-fiction writing that responds to the present times and the world as it is. The prize was conceived to mark the Covid-19 pandemic and is also a memorial to Prudence Scott, a lifelong nature diarist who died in 2019. Her Trust is the prize’s sponsor.

The winning writer Nicola Pitchford received £10,000 and the five shortlisted writers, including Neha Sinha, received £1,000 each. All six winning entries will be published in an anthology. The winner was announced on November 17 at the Kendal Mountain Literature Festival, UK.

Kathryn Aalto (historian), Elizabeth-Jane Burnett (writer and academic), Matthew Cobb (professor of zoology), Sara Hunt (publisher), and Will Smith (academic) were this year’s jury.

The six shortlisted essays and writers are:

  • “Q is for Garden”, Jenny Chamarette
  • “The Fence”, Laura Coleman
  • “Last Flight of the Goshawk?”, Ben Crane
  • “A Parable of Arable Land”, Nicola Pitchford
  • “None of This Should Be Here”, Joanna Pocock
  • “City of Covid Trees”, Neha Sinha