LITTLE ROCK -- The Ozark Society Foundation is accepting submissions for the Sassafras Award for Excellence in Environmental Writing, a new literary prize for work whose environmental focus relates to the areas of Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana where the Ozark Society operates, according to a news release.
The Arkansas-based nonprofit, which promotes conservation, education and recreation activity in the Ozark-Ouachita region, will present the award winner with a $3,000 prize. The foundation will accept and encourage award submissions through July 31 from any author in any location whose writing reflects these regional connections, the release said.
Writing may be submitted at http://www.ozarksociety.net/foundation/foundation-literary-awards/
"The new Sassafras Award encourages writers and artists of all ages to give voice to their views of the environment," Ozark Society Foundation Chair Marvin Schwartz said in the release.
"The award winner may express a sense of wonder or a sense of concern. We are seeking a unique voice that raises environmental understanding and speaks to readers' hearts and minds."
The name for the Sassafras Award refers to the Ozark Society Foundation logo, which is a sassafras leaf. Its three lobes are symbols for the organization's goals of education, recreation and conservation.
The Sassafras Award is open to full-length unpublished manuscripts or collections as well as published work within the past three years and "seeks to encourage innovative writing and new perspectives of nature and conservation as well as new voices and the expression of contemporary environmental experiences."
Eligible genres include fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, dramatic scripts, graphic novels, illustrated books, children's books, young adult fiction, edited compilations, published columns or blogs. Scientific writing is not accepted. If an unpublished work is selected as the winner, it may be considered for publication by the Ozark Society Foundation.
University of Arkansas Director of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation David McCombs, winner of the Yale Younger Poets Series Award, other national writing honors and a former park ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park, will serve as finalist judge for the award.
The inaugural winner of The Sassafras Award for Excellence in Environmental Writing will be announced in January 2022. More information on the Sassafras Award and the submission process is available at http://www.ozarksociety.net
"Established as a nonprofit organization in 1975, the Ozark Society Foundation works with the Ozark Society and other organizations to support and promote conservation, education, and recreation activity in the Ozark-Ouachita region and surrounding lowlands. The OSF is a major publisher of conservation and nature-related books, having published more than two dozen titles on the topic," the release said.